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Coco Warner Reporting With nearly half of all first marriages in the United States ending in divorce, chances are most people have been affected by divorce. And more people are using mediators to end their marriages.
Anyone who has been through a divorce-- or been touched by one-- knows what a difficult experience it can be. But the goal of divorce mediation is to make the experience less adversarial and more collaborative.
There may be 50 ways to leave your lover-- let's hope that running them over isn't one of them. But the Divorce Mediation Institute of Utah hopes that mediation is.
Shirley Pappin/Divorce Mediation Institute of Utah: "We mediate conflict so that we can protect the ongoing nature of your family, so that you can leave civilly and respectfully and create runways for each other."
Shirley Pappin has been involved in divorce mediation for the past decade and says she's seen great success and more acceptance. In fact, state legislation passed just last year mandates the use of a mediator if divorcing couples are unable to reach an agreement.
Shirley Pappin/Divorce Mediation Institute of Utah: "When people choose attorneys, they're in an adversarial process. Mediation allows a more collaborative process."
Coco Warner/Eyewitness News: "Shirley Pappin says she also likes to involve the children of divorcing parents in the process, to make the experience less scary."
Shirley Pappin/Divorce Mediation Institute of Utah: "Very often I'll invite the children in without mom and dad so they can see that this isn't a scary place. The mystery is out of it. There's not a guy with a black robe and a gavel or what they've heard from friends."
And the goal of mediation is to provide families with information, giving them the best and worst case scenarios and helping them reach a middle ground. Once an agreement is reached, attorneys then take that agreement before the judge.
Shirley Pappin/Divorce Mediation Institute of Utah: "So that both people at the end of this walk out of this office without second guessing or wondering if they got all their information."
According to Shirley Pappin, most divorce mediations will cost you a third of what of an attorney run divorce would: anywhere from 500 to 2,000 dollars.
Coming up tomorrow, I'll have a recap on this month's love series.
