Turn To Us For Mediation Services
Divorce and other family changes can be the most difficult and emotional periods in life. Often, litigation is costly and only heightens the stress.
The Law Offices of Anne Schmidt, LLC knows that you have alternative options, and we can help you decide if they are right for you. Anne Schmidt is a certified mediator and attorney who draws on her legal and business knowledge to solve conflict throughout Illinois.
Mediation, beyond providing a more cost-friendly alternative to litigation, is a highly cooperative process wherein both parties meet with a neutral third party to address any outstanding issues. By choosing mediation, the decision-making falls in the hands of the couple, not a divorce judge.
An Experienced And Evenhanded Mediator
As a neutral facilitator, Anne helps parties develop options for resolution. These successful interactions can help you preserve relationships and accomplish your goals in a timely, cost-effective way.
In domestic relations mediation, we can help divorcing or unmarried parents address a variety of issues, including:
- Communication
- Parenting time schedules
- Education decisions and expenses as well as extracurricular activities
- Child support
- Health care decisions and expenses
- Religious affiliation
- Extracurricular activities
Mediation may allow you to resolve a divorce or dispute before you go to court and, in some cases, before you even file a court case. Anne received over 40 hours of mediation training with the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago. She understands how to maximize your chances of reaching a fair agreement.
Why Mediation?
A Better Approach To Divorce And Separation
For many years, when a couple wanted to get a divorce, they had to go through the process of litigation. They would have to fight over every issue involved, in the public setting of a courtroom, with their children present, all with a judge making the ultimate decisions over critical issues in their lives. This used to be the only option available.
There is a better way. For years now, mediation has been an alternative option for divorcing couples, and it has become a much more popular approach in recent years. Attorney Anne Prenner Schmidt of the Law Offices of Anne Schmidt, LLC, is a knowledgeable, experienced divorce mediation attorney serving clients in Highland Park and throughout Illinois. She handles mediation, collaborative divorce and other alternative methods of divorce.
Mediation is a divorce process by which divorcing couples meet together to make their own decisions and come to agreements on every aspect of their divorce. Both parties can be represented by their own attorneys, and the process is guided by a neutral facilitator who does not support or represent either party individually.
Attorney Anne Schmidt can represent your interests in the mediation process or serve as a neutral.
The Benefits Of Mediation
In the vast majority of cases, mediation offers many benefits over traditional litigation:
- Efficiency: The mediation process is not hindered by overloaded courts and judges’ schedules. If both parties are committed to the process, they can proceed at their own pace and move things along much more quickly.
- Cost-effectiveness: Because of the efficiency, plus the lack of courtroom preparation needed, mediation can usually save money for everyone involved.
- Peacefulness: Rather than “fighting it out” in the courtroom, mediation involves both parties working together to come up with the best resolutions possible in the most amicable manner possible.
- Privacy: The courtroom is a public forum where the intimate details of your splintered marriage relationship are on display. Mediation sessions are private, allowing both parties to talk openly and candidly in order to get to a fair and equitable agreement.
- Safer for your children: Mediation helps clients minimize the turmoil of the divorce on their children. In the mediation sessions, you can keep the children out of the process completely.
These are just a few of the important benefits of mediation. It is important to note that the only way mediation can work is if both parties are committed to the process of resolving divorce issues amicably. If only one party is working toward an effective resolution, the mediation process simply won’t work.
For divorcing couples seeking mediation services, we can provide a neutral facilitator or represent one of your interests throughout the process.
Contact Law Offices of Anne Schmidt, LLC
Do not wait. Get the information you need as soon as possible. Contact our firm online or call us at 312-815-5820 to schedule a consultation.