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Don't Be In The Dark About Our Legal System

Hello, I'm Karla Mitchell. Going through a legal case can be very expensive and challenging. I won't go into details, but I recently underwent my own legal battle that lasted several years. It is finally over and I successfully received a settlement, but I had to spend so much time studying law in order to play my role in my own court case. While I found a great attorney at one point, I felt completely lost initially and I don't want anyone else to experience the same thing. So I decided to create this blog for those who would like to know more about law.

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Don't Be In The Dark About Our Legal System

Two Things To Try To Work Out In Divorce Mediation

by Andrew Martin

One misconception many people have about divorce proceedings is that it automatically goes to court where a judge will make all of the hard decisions for you. Divorces only need to be settled in court when there are disagreements, with it being preferable to settle issues in mediation, where you have some say in the final outcome. Here are some issues you should definitely try to work out during the mediation process.

Settling Your Debts

It is likely that you and your spouse have racked up some debts over the course of your marriage. It could be credit card debt due to joint purchases, medical bills, or college loans from going back to school. You'll want to try to work out who will be responsible for these debts after the divorce, or how they should be fairly divided between the two of you.

For example, you may view student loan debt as a personal debt that the person enrolled is responsible for. Meanwhile, you may decide to sell marital assets to pay off as much credit card debt as possible. Since you both will still be responsible for debts with you and your spouse's name attached to them after a divorce, you will also need to assign responsibility to who will make those debt payments.

Dealing With The House

If you and your spouse own property together, a big decision will need to be made about what to do about the house. The problem with a house is that it can easily go up or down in value by the time you are ready to get divorced, which can impact what you want to do with the property.

When selling the property, you will need to decide on what percentage of the profits will go to each person after the mortgage is settled. If someone will continue to live in the house due to the real estate value being lower than ideal, you'll need to come up with an agreement on who continues to pay for the mortgage and how profits are split at a later date when the home is sold.

As long as you work together in mediation, you can come up with a solution that works best for you. Leaving a judge to decide could end up with them making a decision that neither of you are happy about. Work with a divorce attorney if you feel like you need assistance with mediation.

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