Rose and Danny came to our office with a unique proposition. They were ready to file for divorce, but they wanted to work out a settlement which would allow them to remain in the marital home after the divorce, until their son graduated from high school. Danny owned his own company. Rose worked part time for Danny's business, but had predominantly been a stay at home mother. They had been married for nearly 20 years and due to the length of the marriage and the disparity in incomes, it was nearly assured that Danny would have to pay spousal support to Rose.

Had they hired separate attorneys and litigated their divorce, Rose and Danny, due to the spousal support and business valuation issues, would most likely spend a year in litigation and would have paid tens of thousands of dollars in attorney and expert fees.

Instead, during the following six weeks, we had a number of mediation sessions. I was able to assist them in reaching an agreement on all of their issues. We came up with a plan that would allow the parties to remain in the house together post-divorce, but also came up with an alternative in case it did not work out and the parties decided to separate. They also reached an agreement on a creative spousal support plan in which Rose will be paid a certain percentage of the business income. This allowed Danny to continue to operate his business without causing him financial hardship and allowed Rose to receive her share of the value of the business and spousal support.

We drafted an agreement, which contained all of the provisions of the settlement. They were divorced four months after their first meeting.