Franklin Legal Blog

As the end of the year approaches, Massachusetts' families may be making their travel plans to visit loved ones during the holidays. Families that have been affected by separation and divorce may struggle this time of year as inevitably one parent in a co-parenting team may not be with their child or children on special days of celebration. How this division of time is established can vary from family to family.

Often, parents make decisions about holidays, birthdays, and other special times of the year when they create their co-parenting and child custody plans. Parents may decide to split holidays and alternate between them, or they may establish schedules that outline when during important days they will each have time with their kids. Parents who negotiate their own child custody plans through mediation and collaboration may be able to take control over the way their kids' holiday custody plans are set up.

It is November, and all across the state Massachusetts residents may be eagerly planning where they will spend their holidays. For many, the winter months are a time for being with the people that they love and enjoying the company of friends and family. For others, however, the end of the year may be when they struggle to maintain happiness in their personal relationships and consider their options for finding more peace in the next calendar year.

Many divorces occur in January after the holidays are over, and a number of those individuals who choose to end their marriage opt to take the traditional route through the courts to secure their divorces. However, individuals are reminded that mediation is also an option for pursuing divorce, and that there are many advantages to using it if the participants are able to maintain respectful channels of communication.

Often when a Massachusetts marriage reaches its end it is because one of the partners passes away or the partners choose to end their marriage through divorce. Many bases on which divorces are grounded involve disagreements that cannot be resolved, fundamental differences regarding how the partners approach life, and difficulties that have no other options for resolution. Divorce is hard on individuals who agree that it is necessary, and individuals who choose to divorce can do so through litigation or some form of alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation.

However, a recent trend is emerging regarding why some American couples are choosing to divorce. Known as "strategic divorces," these marriage dissolutions are not necessarily based on conflict but rather perceived or actual financial necessity. When partners to a marriage separate and divorce, they divide up their money and assets and figure out how to live on less than what they had when they were married. Strategic divorces may afford individuals certain options to receive benefits and financial help that they would not qualify for if they continued their unions.

Mediation has become a relatively mainstream alternative for couples hoping to quickly and less expensively end their marriage. Many people familiar with the process of mediation already know that it can help couples move through a divorce more quickly while also helping them curtail some of the more expensive aspects of a traditional, litigated divorce.

A less recognized benefit of mediation is how it provides more privacy to the divorcing couple and can help them insulate their children from the potentially damaging drama of a contentious divorce. Since mediation takes place outside of the courts, what happens behind closed doors at a mediation session doesn't ever have to become public knowledge.