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A Problem to Solve, Not a War to Win

Too often divorce is seen as a war (remember "War of the Roses"?). When we see it as a war, then "winning" becomes the primary objective. But how often does one really win in a divorce? Certainly a hard fought divorce comes with many costs -- money, time, energy, etc. Both parties emerge emotionally...

What is Litigation?

Litigation is the process lawyers engage in to prepare and take a case to court (or an arbitrator) for a decision. The role of the attorney is to build their own case and to find ways to discredit the other side's case. A big part of this is gathering information - obtaining documents, interviewing...

What is a Settlement Conference?

Here in King County, and increasingly in other counties as well, parties are required to go through some kind of dispute resolution process prior to trial to see if the case can in fact be settled. The most common type of pre-trial dispute resolution in litigated cases is the settlement conference....

Post-Divorce Parenting Mediation

A friend of ours recently pointed out an interesting article by Silvana D. Raso titled Using Mediation to Keep Your Cool During Divorce and Beyond. In the article, Ms. Raso makes the very good point that post-divorce parenting is often prone to disputes after their divorce is over, and that working...

Can We Hire Mediators Instead of Lawyers?

Since we do both mediation and representation, we are often contacted by people who want to hire one of our lawyers as their mediator so they can get everything done by one person. However, the functions of mediators and lawyers are different, even when the mediator is a lawyer. We act as a lawyer w...