The California Supreme Court’s recent ruling permitting same-sex couples to wed has sparked a whole new wave of dialogue within the family law arena. Divorce mediators and lawyers are particularly interested what role they will play with same-sex marriage dissolutions in the future.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal written by Nathan Koppel delves into the potential complications same-sex couples may face as they end their marriages.

Next week, same-sex couples across the country who want to marry will be welcomed in California. But what happens if they later want to divorce?

That is one of the many legal issues that could confront California newlyweds who return to home states where same-sex marriages are prohibited. Unlike a Massachusetts ruling a few years ago, a landmark court ruling last month allowing same-sex marriages in California will permit almost any out-of-state couples to wed there.

But that doesn’t mean their lives after the wedding will be easy. Some gay and lesbian couples joined by marriage in Massachusetts or Canada, or under civil unions from, say, Vermont, contend with legal limbo in other states. Among the tricky issues, apart from divorce, that can make the honeymoon feel decidedly over are employee benefits, bankruptcy filings and inheritance rights.

John McCall Jr., a Dallas lawyer who represents gay and lesbian clients in property and custody

Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers were married in Massachusetts in 2004 but tried, in vain, to divorce in Rhode Island, with the state’s high court saying last year that the state defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Now, Ms. Ormiston is trying to establish residency in Massachusetts to divorce there. disputes, says that thanks to the legal thicket same-sex couples can face, his clients “over and over again tell other couples considering marriage to run in the other direction.”

To read the entire article, click here (Requires WSJ online subscription)

One of the benefits that mediation provides to both heterosexual and homosexual is that much of the heavy lifting of the divorce is done away from the courtroom.  This allows the couple to prepare and resolve potential legal issues together before they are under the spotlight of the judge and likely the media.  While mediation can not defend against all of the obstacles that will block a same-sex couple from an easy divorce, it does alleviate some of the problems the couple will face.