I am in the process of getting a divorce.
How can family mediation prove useful to me?
What will I gain from this process?
The breakup of a marriage, the breaking up of a family, especially when there are children, is one of the most serious psychosocial events in a person’s life. When a couple begins their married life, they expect to spend the rest of their lives with their partner while creating a happy family. The fact that a couple may be led to a breakup means they have made enormous efforts and have mentally and morally exhausted themselves to keep the family together, having already made huge compromises.
However, there are cases where divorce is the healthiest solution, especially if the differences between the couple are unbridgeable. So, a couple deciding to break up, apart from experiencing mental pain, anger, frustration, frustrating expectations, must resolve and settle other issues such as practical daily living, finances such as child alimony, custody. and parent communication with children, sharing of common assets, residence of each parent in the family home, settlement of loans that they may have taken on as a former spouse.
What also happens if one parent resides in another city or another country and takes the child away from the other parent.
How are these issues resolved? So far the classic let’s say method, especially if there is a disagreement between ex-spouses is to bring to justice with claims for interim measures and lawsuits for maintenance, lawsuits for breach of court decisions, lawsuits for communication, and one party may not pay the common mortgage loan and so it “falls on the other’s back”.
These processes can become endless if one considers the delay in the administration of justice in Greece. In addition, postponements, abstentions and strikes by lawyers or court officials, if you are unlucky and fall in such case, further delay the final resolution of these important issues.
The financial cost goes hand in hand with delay and hassle. The effect of the courts, especially on the financial side, can be frustrating particularly on the issue of maintenance claims, which may ultimately be low for one party and the other party unable to cope.
Is there an alternative method of resolving such disputes? Yes, there is and is called family mediation.
It is a process in which the parties to the dispute come to their will in order to settle their personal and property disputes and to achieve a viable and mutually satisfactory solution, with the assistance of a third, neutral person, the Mediator.
The family mediation does not apply to the divorce, which can only be issued by judicial decision. But all the other issues mentioned above regarding maintenance, custody, communication, financial settlement, whether there are children or not, can be resolved through the family mediation in the most concise, civilized and painless way, tailored to the couple’s real needs, desires and interests.
Mediation is a flexible, confidential, secret, short process that lasts one day or can be interrupted and resumed the next day. It is a civilized solution, a non-conflict solution. It is conducted in a neutral, specially designed space, selected by the mediator, in consultation with the parties or their lawyers.
It can take place even if litigation has begun, even if court rulings have been issued. The Mediation process is attended by the Mediator, the parties involved and their lawyers – legal counsels.
The mediator is specially trained, certified and accredited as a mediator. You can search for a mediator from the special directory available at www.diamesolavisi.gov.gr. They are selected by the interested parties themselves. The mediator is neither a judge nor an arbitrator. It is not up to them to decide how to resolve the dispute, but the parties themselves form the agreement. Many times, we want other things from what we really need.
Sometimes time can work in our favor. Many times, anger and troubled emotions do not allow us to see our own interests and our child’s true interests.
So the mediator, with appropriate communication methods and negotiation modes, but also courtesy and empathy, that is, ” putting oneself in someone’s shoes” and understanding how he or she reacts and why he or she reacts like that, makes it easier for the parties to see their true interests. Certainly, the parties’ lawyers play a key role.
It is important to understand that mediation is a collaborative process, if one part of the process for example the lawyer, or other part, the mediator does not react properly or is angry or does not want to negotiate realistically, the whole effort will sink.
It’s a win-win process and not a conflict like a trial. You save time, money, energy and most of all the peace of mind that you so much need and have long lost through the demoralizing process of separation.
For family mediation issues please contact Mrs. Anna Korsanou, lawyer and accredited mediator.