7 Benefits of Filing an Uncontested Divorce Agreement
Uncontested Divorce Mediation
Posted April 10, 2019
In the United States, there are two primary ways to conduct your divorce. You can take your ex to court and bicker about every detail or you can sit down with a mediator and draw up an uncontested divorce agreement. Of course, the divorces that make the news and are mimicked in television shows are usually the big, angry, messy ones where spouses fight across the court room for months before a final agreement is reached. But for your peace of mind and ability to move on with your life after the end of this relationship, most practical people would far and away prefer the process of an uncontested divorce in Denver.
Unfortunately, not everyone getting a divorce knows that an uncontested agreement is an option. You may have gotten the impression from television, your ex, or your lawyer that ‘going to court’ is the only option to get your divorce or your only chance to see terms in your favor. This simply isn’t true. By sitting down with a mediator, even if your ex is hostile, it can become possible to draw up an agreement that works for everyone.
Let’s take a look at the top seven benefits of building and filing an uncontested divorce agreement instead of taking your ex to court.
1) Ending Your Marriage Quickly and Efficiently
We know that for most people seeking a divorce, the desire is to get out of the relationship and move forward as quickly as possible. You know the relationship is over, and you don’t want to spend months in court still legally tied to your ex while fighting them tooth and nail for favorable final divorce terms.
Drawing up an uncontested divorce in Denver is the only way to get your divorce finalized without prolonged delays. Through mediation, you and your ex can draw up the most practical terms of divorce. Then, because those terms are ‘uncontested’ meaning the court doesn’t have to enact any tie-breakers or settle disputes, your divorce can be approved and finalized almost immediately and you can move on with your life as a newly unmarried person.
2) A Chance to Cover All Your Bases
When a divorce is handled in court, the terms are defined by the issues brought up in court, entertained by the judge, and ultimately ruled on. Exes often don’t have a chance to bring in their laundry list of personal concerns about divorce terms to have these heard and considered. Either your lawyer manages to slip your most important terms in or they don’t.
In uncontested divorce mediation, you can bring every one of your concerns to the table and have them addressed, along with your ex’s concerns, as a single final divorce agreement is drafted. This is your chance to make sure your heirlooms wind up with you, that their debts leave the marriage with them, and any little details you want to cover get the full attention and inclusion in the negotiations that they deserve. This is a huge improvement to the rushed and heavy-handed methods of court divorces.
3) Control Over Compromises Instead of Court Orders
Speaking of heavy-handed methods, a court divorce is all about forcing agreements between conflicting spouses. Both spouses want full custody and it’s the judge’s job to King-Solomon the custody agreement into fair halves. Both spouses want the house, and the judge is likely to force you to sell it instead and split the proceeds.
Mediating an uncontested divorce agreement, on the other hand, gives you and your ex control over the compromises you reach. Even if you can barely stand to be in the same room together, you can likely find better compromises by meeting at the mediation table than by accepting whatever a judge deems appropriate without knowing your situation.
This is your chance to, say, split your custody week on Thursday instead of the weekend, to decide between you who keeps the house for the sake of the kids, to split up your shared business holdings in a way that saves the business, and so on. Your circumstances are unique, and so too should be the divorce compromises you make. An uncontested divorce in Denver allows for that while a court divorce does not.
4) Time and Encouragement to Negotiate with Cool Heads
Drawing up an uncontested divorce agreement also gives you a chance to cool down and really think of those solutions that will work best. Taking your ex to court can sometimes turn out like a Jerry Springer episode, with the desire to shout across the court room and encouragement from lawyers for each ex to make the other look bad.
In mediation, the focus of everyone in the room is on finding a good divorce agreement, not fighting and slinging mud. Your mediator, legal representatives, and even both divorcing spouses will have every reason to think carefully and consider the best course of action. This is far more likely to result in satisfactory divorce terms than a courtroom brawl.
5) A Mediator to Help Make the Deals Fair for Both Ex’s
Your mediator is also there to double-check all agreements to make sure they are practical and fair. A court may accidentally order child support payments that leave an ex practically destitute due to an income misunderstanding, while an uncontested divorce mediator is more likely to identify this problem and make it right. A court may draw a hardline custody schedule that works for neither parent’s real work schedules, while mediation can allow you to draw up exactly the days, weeks, or months of custody splitting that work best for your co-parenting family.
With uncontested mediation, the finances of both exes are more likely to be stable and reasonable for independent living than the hard impersonal decrees of a court divorce.
6) A Safe Process to Hear From Your Kids
A mediation room is also a much friendlier place to hear from your children than a courtroom or a judge’s chambers. Children school-age and older are old enough to voice their opinions on who they want to live with, how they want to spend their summers, and whether or not they trust new romantic partners. Older children should have their feelings and preferences considered in a well-planned divorce. But dragging your kids into the courtroom is often an upsetting or even traumatizing experience. Especially if there is already mud-slinging and the child is expected to speak out against a parent that they love.
In uncontested divorce mediation, your children will have a safe way to voice their opinions without being put into an unpleasant spotlight or asked to ‘take a side’. Instead, a mediator can ask your kids some basic questions like who cooks meals, does their homework with them, and how they think shared or primary physical custody should work out. In this friendlier environment, your child might even have some really good ideas for a harmonious post-divorce family dynamic.
7) Assistance Planning for Future Conflicts
Finally, a mediator can also help you build your divorce agreement to preemptively solve problems that tend to come up in the decade following a standard divorce. Terms of support if one or both ex’s finds a new romantic partner, protocols for changing the terms of a divorce when your life circumstances change, and clearly defined terms for how decisions will be made for the kids as they grow up.
By putting in clauses that account for an unknowable future, you can give yourself easy solutions to problems, challenges, and changes of circumstance that have not yet happened. And an experienced divorce mediator will know exactly what to help you plan for.
Drafting an uncontested divorce agreement is the best possible way to put a failed marriage behind you and move forward in a healthy and practical way. Whether you have children co co-parent or just want to free yourself up to build a new life, an uncontested divorce in Denver can help you and your ex find the best possible terms and wrap up your marriage without a messy courtroom battle. If you and your spouse are ready to seek an uncontested divorce in Denver through mediation, contact Split Simple today! Split Simple is ready to help you reach the divorce agreement that works best for you without the courtroom drama or delays.
Split Simple
1624 Market Street #202
Denver, CO 80202
720-501-4600