More Divorcing Couples Utilize ADR.

A recent survey of Certified Divorce Financial Analysts (CDFA) indicates that a vast majority of those polled stating that the number of clients unable to continue to afford their services in this economy has increased since the previous year.   They further commented that this will result in more clients seeking a more cost-effective alternative to litigation, such as collaborative divorce and mediation.

I only recently became involved in domestic mediation, and I cannot specifically ascribe any increase in the frequency of my domestic mediations to the economy, but this makes sense to me.  Couples who generally see eye-to-eye but have some disputes over a few assets or maybe visitation and custody issues, are not well served by the adversarial process.  Litigation tends to escalate matters, driving up costs and delaying the finality of the divorce.

Hat tip to NJ Lawyer and mediator Donald Vanarelli.