Make an educated choice when you choose your mediation professional. Even where the parties have been court-ordered to mediation, the parties may agree upon a specific separation or divorce mediator in Maryland.
The first criteria may be whether to choose an attorney-mediator or a non-attorney mediator. Only an attorney mediator is authorized to draft a formal Agreement (for independent attorney review) and very often a non-attorney mediator is limited in his or her expertise to child-related issues. An attorney mediator who has particular experience in family law matters is an ideal choice where the parties want to resolve all of the marital issues, including child custody, support, alimony, division of property, tax issues, and division of debts, for the purposes of drafting those agreements into a Marital Settlement Agreement.
So how to start the Mediation process? One party or both contact the mediator by telephone or email to schedule the first session. 410-296-2190. Ask the mediator how long a “typical” case takes to mediate to its conclusion and what it will cost to have the agreement drafted by the mediator and reviewed by the parties’ reviewing attorneys. The mediator will generally use email to communicate with the parties, and the parties should provide the mediator with an email address to be used for this purpose.
Nancy Caplan, Esquire, with Maryland Divorce Mediation and Legal Services conducts mediation during regular business hours, evening hours and occasional weekends if there is a hardship. After setting the date and time, Nancy Caplan, Esquire will provide detailed mediation preparation instructions and will also provide the fee structure and mediation agreement prior to the first session.
You can contact Nancy Caplan, Esq. by telephone, 410-296-2190 or by email, MediateDivorce1@gmail.com to schedule a consultation. The consultation is usually in person however, where hardship exists, telephone/Skype consultation and/or divorce mediation/family mediation by telephone/Skype can occur.
