Divorce Mediation

Mediation is informal, empowering, and progressive. We facilitate the structured process of negotiations between two parties.

Parenting Plans

A parenting plan is essentially a roadmap directing how children will be raised after separation or divorce.

Settlement Agreements

A detailed, comprehensive look at a client’s financial situation with specific recommendations designed to help you.

PRACTICE AREAS

DIVORCE MEDIATION

Mediation is an interactional and interpersonal process. An impartial person, without decision-making authority, helps people in dispute communicate effectively in order to: better understand one another; gain clarity about the dispute; express their respective experiences, concerns and points of view and through which they find a mutually acceptable response to their conflict. I believe in the Satisfaction Triangle and satisfaction includes: substance, process and psychological.

Substance satisfaction includes, and is more than, whether the terms of an agreement meet the parties needs and interests. For the parties it also includes:

  • looking ahead, does it seem possible and likely to make the terms of the agreement work?
  • Did you consider how things could go wrong?
  • Do you understand everything in the proposed agreement?
  • Were the standards/guidelines used to make decisions, clearly identified, spelled out and agreed to?

Process satisfaction includes aspects such as: that the mediator was unbiased, the rules of the process was made clear and were applied uniformly and everyone was able to speak and be heard. For the parties it also includes:

  • Were all parties encouraged to listen attentively? Did it happen? Did the mediator listen carefully to me and to others?
  • Did you feel that you had a voice?
  • Did the process encourage and support your ability to engage honestly; to express ideas, proposals and emotions?

Psychological satisfaction – After all, mediation is not counseling or psychotherapy. These are some of the elements of psychological satisfaction that have meaning for the parties:

  • Did you feel composed, confident and hopeful?
  • Were you in charge of how you engaged and reacted?
  • Were your concerns viewed as genuine and your points of view treated as legitimate?
  • As a result of participating in this process, did you experience a relatively decrease in your levels of stress and unease?
  • Do you feel you were respected?

Focusing on all elements, substance, process and psychological, represents excellence in practice, it is also the best way to help parties determine a mutually acceptable response to their dispute, to find the best way forward and to create an agreement that is implementable and durable!

PARENTING PLANS

Best interest of the Children.

A parenting plan is essentially a roadmap directing how children will be raised after separation or divorce. As a co-parenting solution, it is a written agreement drafted by both parents with the help of a neutral third party, usually a social worker, psychologist, or family lawyer, acting as a mediator.

Co-parenting might look easy, but for most parties, maintaining a healthy relationship, after a process of divorce, is not all that easy. What is it about? It is about raising kids and agreeing on how to give them the love, care, and support they deserve. Should the parties now be best friends? No, but successful co-parenting means that parties will put their personal differences aside and their children first. It is also not a competition but a coming together of two separate homes, working together towards the best interest of the child.

We motivate a child-focused approach that prioritizes the children’s needs, which is also a legal obligation as set out in the Children’s Act of 2005. When co-holders of parental rights, however, disagree about exercising their responsibilities, it becomes a challenge.

Parenting plans are therefore a necessary document that formalizes arrangements around raising children, it outlines how co-parents will exercise their parental responsibilities and rights after a divorce. It is also a necessary tool that will assist parents on various issues including, care, contact and financial contributions. It further deals with essential decisions such as:

  • where and with whom the children will reside;
  • contact between the children and other people;
  • schooling and religion
  • the values and beliefs parents will draw on when interacting with the children;
  • rules and guidelines for discipline.

Parenting plans need to be approved by the court before it is legally binding on parents. The parenting plan can be incorporated in a divorce settlement or registered at the Children’s Court of the Family Advocate’s office.

As a binding document, it gives co-parents peace of mind knowing they can get legal help if the agreement isn’t honored. Legally speaking, both parents are required to keep their commitments and stick to the parenting plan.

SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS

Fair Settlement

Divorce is never an easy process, it is filled with emotion, trauma, stress and heartbreak. By reaching a settlement agreement on how to settle your estate, could ease the burden of a divorce, therefore part of the process, is creating a divorce settlement agreement, and we can help you with that.

A settlement agreement is a legally-binding document in which you and your spouse can agree on the terms of your divorce and it can cover a full range of topics which includes: child support, spousal support, division of property, parental responsibilities and rights and any other issue that are relevant to your situation.

As soon as a settlement is reached and the agreement is drafted and signed, divorce could be very simple and easy.

OTHER AREAS OF PRACTICE

Litigation - Family Law, Child Law, Road Accident Fund Claims

Our dedicated services are there to look after your interest. We will prioritize your matter and we can assure you of our attention to your specific needs.

GET IN TOUCH

Thank you for visiting our website. If you’d like to book an introductory meeting with one of our experts, get in touch today.

551 View St
Pretoria, 0174
South Africa

elaine@austinattorneys.co.za
0124929274

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