Modification of Support Orders due to COVID-191 min read

Marriage counselors often talk about how couples repeat the same “dance steps” when they argue. It is common for couples who are divorcing to have developed some bad communication styles, and they may have engaged in these styles for so long that they are now habitual. A marriage counselor may try to teach couples new dance steps to save their marriage and handle conflict. Unfortunately, if the couple continues to be stuck in old patterns of conflict, these destructive patterns do not get any better when they divorce. Destructive Divorce Dances THE LIMBO Characteristics How Low Can You Go? THE MACARENA Characteristics Hey Macarena!!! STOMP Characteristics Take that! SALSA Characteristics Hot! Hot! Hot! When couples are divorcing and find themselves engaging in a “destructive dance”…

Whether you mediate or litigate your divorce the process is one that involves decision making. The decisions that parties must make will be in three main areas: Parenting, Dividing Marital Assets and Financial Support. Couples who choose a cooperative mediated process will be able to make their own decisions and control the outcome of the divorce process. The key to wise decision making requires that the parties take the time to educate themselves on the facts and the laws that apply to their case. Good decision making requires that the parties manage their emotions, engage in financial planning and when there are children involved they must consider how the divorce process and their parenting plan will impact the welfare of their children. In order to…

Although a mediator should never provide “legal counsel or advice” to either party, a good divorce mediator may need to provide the parties with basic legal information or specific legal rules that are applicable to the disputed issues in their case. Sometimes when parties have an early proposal for resolving a particular issue in their case, they will quickly abandon their original proposal when they are presented with the “vanilla version” of the law by their mediator. If they discover that their proposed division of a particular asset or asset group is not supported by the law, they may immediately want to resolve the issue in a more equitable manner. For example, when the parties learn that retirement assets earned during the marriage are community…

Many of us learned the gymnastic term the “twisties” this week when the news broke that world-renowned gymnast, Simone Biles, had withdrawn from the women’s all-around competition at the Tokyo Olympics. “I just don’t trust myself as much as I used to,” Biles told reporters in Tokyo and she stated that she “wanted to focus on her mental health.” Apparently, getting “the twisties” is a gymnast’s biggest nightmare. The twisties are described as a mysterious phenomenon — suddenly a gymnast is no longer able to do a twisting skill he or she has done thousands of times before. Elle Reeve, a CNN reporter who used to compete in gymnastics said the twisties are a condition where, “Your body just won’t cooperate, your brain loses track…

If you are divorcing and have avoided litigating with your spouse by using mediation to resolve your divorce you have given yourself and your children a gift that keeps on giving. It is a gift that demonstrates your ability to put your family first. It is a gift that will empower you to make wise decisions and control the outcome of your divorce. Mediation is a gift that allows you to preserve your finances so that your retirement and your children’s college fund will remain intact after the divorce. It is a gift that will give you skills that you can use to resolve the inevitable conflict that will arise with your ex-spouse as you co-parent in the future. Be sure and share the gift…