Timothy Patrick Peabody Spousal Support Law Blog on Lawyers.com

DIVORCE SEPARATION/ MEDIATION IN ORANGE COUNTY
By Timothy P. Peabody, Esq, in Divorce - Alimony

Divorce Separation/Mediation in orange county

“Sometimes mediation is the only reasonable way to resolve family law/divorce issues.” Timothy P. Peabody, Esq. of the Peabody Law Firm

Sometimes mediation settles a case in one day!

Mediation is handled by attorneys in our firm and involves:

• Giving the clients personal attention, materials and information
• Assisting clients (both the husband and wife) in reaching an agreement
• Drafting the mediated agreement
• Submitting the mediated agreement to court for a final divorce or separation based upon the terms agreed upon by the client

Mr. Peabody has successfully concluded family law cases for over two decades. He will assist you in reaching an agreement if you seek his advice in mediating your case. We have the experience to help you reach a separation or divorce mediation agreement. Our licensed and experienced attorney will meet with you during mediation.

Divorce mediation is best handled by divorce attorneys who know the problems that can arise.  The Peabody Law Firm began to offer divorce mediation after we received a tremendous outpouring of cases from people seeking a low cost way to resolve their family law disputes. In these cases, the agreements were usually made by non-attorneys and/or paralegals. Mediation is not done by paralegals in our firm. At The Peabody Law Firm the mediation agreement is reached between the parties, and an experienced divorce attorney, acting as a mediator.

In divorce mediation, we handle the following issues:

• Grounds for divorce
• Custody
• Support
• Equitable distribution (property and finances)

Grounds

Whether it is a separation or divorce, we discuss the grounds for divorce and/or separation. We discuss how you can agree to a divorce by neither admitting to nor denying the alleged grounds, but consenting to a divorce. We present you with alternatives available to you in order to agree to a divorce under the appropriate grounds and/or to a separation.

Custody

Custody comes in many variations. As divorce practitioners, we have significant expertise in custody law. We can present you with the prevailing trends and offer insight into which custodial arrangements might benefit you and your children, based on your circumstances.
Custody can be described as follows:

• Residential custody to one parent with legal custody to the other
• Residential custody with one parent, legal custody to the other, with the residential parent having final say
• Joint shared parenting, true joint custody
• Residential custody to one parent with joint custody to the second parent and a neutral parent coordinator in connection with decisions
• Custody involving spheres of influence, recognizing one parent's need or special ability to be responsible for various issues whether it is health, education or religion
• Sole Custody

A traditional custodial arrangement may or may not work for you. We are willing to take whatever arrangement you suggest and fashion it into an agreement that can be incorporated into your divorce or separation. If you need suggestions, we are here to help. We can give you our experience and advice in order to help you make an agreement that saves you money and works in the best interests of your children. In the end, the agreement may make you and your former spouse better parents.

Spousal Support

In connection with divorce mediation, many financial issues are decided—child and spousal support being among the most critical. Your divorce should not leave you incapable of caring for yourself or your children, nor should it require you to pay excessively. Many unique and creative ways exist to deal with child and spousal support.

Whether there is a home, retirement benefits, vehicles, unusual debts, or undisclosed business income, our family law attorneys can discuss the ramifications of your finances and how to best deal with support issues.

Child support

We provide you with our experience and our advice as to child support. We fully understand the laws governing child support and the options available to you, including opting out, which mean that a party may be forced to pay more than the usual amount of child support in certain cases and/or the parties may agree to accept far less than the usual child support in some cases. In some instances no child support is paid.

Spousal support

Spousal support, formerly called alimony and sometimes known as spousal maintenance, is equally important. Many options exist for dealing with spousal support. We discuss the tax ramifications of spousal support and offsetting spousal support with other properties, such as pensions and/or equity in a home. We provide you with the law of spousal support and the possibility of modifying spousal support. We advise you as to the ramifications of agreeing to a spousal support order or waiving spousal support.

Equitable Distribution

In connection with our services, we discuss the law regarding separate property and premarital assets and explain how the laws regarding them affect your divorce.
In our discussion we address the following:

• Your assets
• Your liabilities
• Pensions
• Retirement accounts
• Businesses

All of these matters can be evaluated and split or otherwise apportioned. Houses can be appraised. We give you experience and advice, and we can provide you with a list of acceptable appraisers, pension appraisers, and business evaluators. If you agree to use them or choose to use your own, we can take the appraisal or the evaluation report, discuss it with you, and help turn it into a separation or mediation agreement that both spouses can live with and find acceptable.

We will advise you on various concerns:

• The feasibility of one spouse buying out the other from the marital residence
• Whether property should logically be split and sold
• Whether assets have real value
• Whether assets are negative equity assets
• How one spouse’s contributions to a separate property may cause that separate property to have an appreciated value that could be marital and subject to distribution.
• How spousal contributions can cause any appreciation of a separate asset to be a marital asset.
• The prevailing law concerning transmuting or commingling assets

What Can You Expect From Mediation?

We not only go over the numbers with you, talk to you about the law, review the facts with you, and discuss your children with you; we always get the job done. What this means is that we provide you with the agreement and the judgment of divorce. We do not, like others, give you an agreement and tell you to divorce on your own. We help you do it all. It is all done so long as you both can agree within a reasonable amount of sessions.

Some of our clients have settled their cases in just one day through mediation. Others take longer. Mediation can be a flat-fee service and requires participation from the clients and personal attention from our firm.

Our retainers for mediations begin at $2,500, for which you receive a certain amount of hours, sessions, and all of the paperwork involved in a divorce. Extra funds will be required simply for filing fees, and for an expert house appraisal, business appraisal, or pension appraisal.

If you cannot agree on a certain issue, we offer framed issue sessions for an additional price. A framed issue session allows us to discuss at great length the one issue that is preventing you from entering into an agreement.

Rely on our experience.

• Do not go to paralegals
• Do not go to non-attorney mediators
• Get your mediation done by an experienced divorce litigator

When you are ready to discuss mediation, call the Peabody Law Firm for free consultation regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the mediation process.

www.ThePeabodyLawFirm.com