Divorce/ Custody
Are you thinking about filing for divorce? Are you scared of the legal system? Do you want a judge deciding how you will share your kids with your spouse, what days each of you will see them, and which holidays you will get to spend with them? Do you want a judge deciding which one of you will have to pay off the Visa bill or who will get the newer car and who the older? Are you scared of the fact that if you have reached the point where the judge is making these kinds of decisions for you, you and your spouse have each spent thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of dollars getting to this point yet you have no control over the outcome? Chances are too, if you have reached this point, you and your spouse are angry enough with each other that you have very likely allowed the divorce to negatively impact your children beyond the mere fact that you are splitting up. Even if you don’t have children, the process is taking a tremendous personal toll on you.
Divorce can be devastating enough without choosing the long and stressful path of battling it out. Here is a typical scenario for the average person who has hired the average attorney to handle a divorce. The summons and complaint are served by a process server, so the person receiving it feels ambushed and maybe even embarrassed depending on where he or she was when the papers were delivered. The paperwork is full of accusations designed to give your spouse the upper hand in the court system. Then the attorneys show up in court for a hearing on the temporary conditions that the couple will live under while the divorce is pending. One spouse’s attorney will sling mud at the other spouse and the other attorney slings it right back. Pretty soon, the couple is madder at each other than ever before and no one feels like working things out. Their stress rises and so do the fees they are paying. Don’t you have better ways to spend your time and money?
If you are scared of the legal system, you are not alone. Divorce cases that do not settle head into litigation, and the people who have to live with the consequences of the trial—the family caught in the middle— lose control over the process. They often end up tied up in court for months, even years, and it becomes one of the ugliest and most stressful periods of their lives. If you want to avoid the expense, uncertainty and stress of trusting your future to the courts, there are ways for you to take control of the process and I can help you do that.
My law office, Jill Creech Bauer PLLC, offers alternatives to what has become the ugly norm. We try to help you resolve your issues so that you can leave your marriage in a sane and dignified way—we try to stop the insanity that is so often involved in getting a divorce. We offer two options to avoid the road to litigation—divorce mediation and cooperative divorce. We also offer traditional representation if you have a case where mediation is not appropriate.