Divorce mediation is a process in which both spouses voluntarily come together to work with an impartial divorce mediator who helps the spouses find mutual solutions to the issues of divorce, such as property and debt division, spousal support, and parenting and support of minor children.
When you choose to handle your divorce through mediation, you are able to work together with your spouse and avoid a painful, expensive, and generally wasteful court battle. In addition to being a much more affordable option, mediation is oftentimes much faster and less emotionally taxing for all the involved parties.
The divorce mediator helps the spouses resolve their issues by presenting a range of possible solutions and, where needed, identifying conflicts and the potentially hidden concerns behind those conflicts. Through a better understanding of the issues, and with the divorce mediator's help, the spouses can discuss their problems in a more constructive, less hostile manner, and thereby work toward mutually satisfying agreements.
Although some couples come to mediation with few disagreements, divorce mediation is not limited to couples who agree on most issues. The key is for each spouse to participate voluntarily and to work cooperatively on reaching solutions.
The divorce mediator drafts an agreement detailing the parties' decisions. The agreement may be reviewed by an attorney for each party. The agreement is then submitted to the court for approval and becomes the basis of the final divorce judgment.
Although the divorce mediator does not act as an attorney for either spouse in the court process, the divorce mediator can prepare court documents for the spouses' signatures.
The office is in Stratford, near the Mill River Country Club and the intersection of Main and East Main Streets. For directions to the Stratford office please click here.
Attorney and mediator Ellie J. Stoddard attended Brown University before going on to earn her law degree from the Wake Forest University School of Law. She went into private practice in 1999 and has since built an impressive career as a successful divorce mediator. She also offers collaborative divorce law as an additional service for her clients.
Ms. Stoddard is a member of the Collaborative Divorce Attorneys of Fairfield County and the Connecticut State Bar Association and formerly was President of the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce.