Linda Roberts formerly with Fairway Divorce Solutions, Calgary.
How and Why I Became Interested in Divorce Mediation
My initial passion when I was in my twenties was to open my own practice as a psychologist here in Calgary by the time I was 40, but when I decided to leave my marriage with my infant son who was 1 1/2 years old at the time, my path to become a psychologist was not what was going to get me through the next 6 years of litigating my divorce.
I remember what stepping into the courtroom for the very first time was like, it felt like I was about to enter into this tunnel not knowing what I was going to find on the inside of it or when I’d see the light at the other end of it. Naive to the legal system, I placed all of my trust into my first lawyer who I thought would get me past the uncertainty so that I could just move on with my life to raise my son in an environment that was now our new normal, in 2 homes with 1 parent in each house.
What I learned after the first year of litigation was that there is no fair, your lawyer has literally minutes to tell your side of the story to a stranger (the judge) who then makes a ruling about how you’re going to move forward that’s legally binding or gets moved to yet another day so that more information can be brought forward. By year 3 and onto my second lawyer, that pattern hadn’t changed, the resolve was no closer, but the cost was now almost $67,000.00.
It didn’t take long to understand that my lawyer’s lives went on at the end of their working day in court, the judges who sat the bench and heard my case along with the countless others who sat in the courtroom to tell their stories, went home to their lives at the end of the day, but what I went home to was a feeling of not knowing what to expect next and that same feeling continued for a total of 6 long years with a cost that accumulated to $114,000 and that was just for MY lawyers.
So if things are suppose to happen for a reason, then my reason for choosing a career in Divorce Negotiating/Mediating is to help prevent others from experiencing crazy legal costs, unnecessary time and stress of litigating and the destruction to your relationship that co-parenting becomes almost impossible due to hating each other so much.
I can’t be any more passionate than I am today, when I say that this alternative process will allow you to maintain some control to the outcome for your separation agreement. It has the ability to leave you feeling like you have a place to rebuild a new future from and it will allow you to be a positive role model to your children, as they watch both of you get through this challenging time with dignity.
Get through your separation with an affordable, less stressful, fair, and efficient process.
Call Linda today at: 587.224.0276 to book your free 1 hr consultation
Visit: calgarydivorcesolutions.com or like us at Facebook – Calgary Divorce Solutions Inc for more information
Mediation is simply a process that uses a neutral third party in order to keep the flow of the conversations
happening between the Parties.
how do you know what questions to ask and where to go to ask them if you’ve never been faced with the Separation/Divorce? Are you ready to enter into separation?