by Stephanie Maloney Apparently, women have had enough of being on “the short end of the stick” when it comes political policy in this country. A record number of women — 309…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Co-parenting is tough enough without having to wonder if you’re one text away from that phone call from the Highway Patrol. Nobody wants to be the cop…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Here it is again that time to start getting out and planning out some “away from the house” time. It seems to get tougher each year so…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Every family that I interact with has difficulty creating and managing their time together. By definition, Divorce creates two entities from one source. With our technology, it…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Imagine Frances McDormand outside your house of white with 500,000 walking, breathing, two-legged billboards demanding action about the killing of her child. Apparently, if all politics are…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney As we finally are getting some much-needed rain I keep thinking about things, besides the social and political black holes, that are ripe for clean up. With…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Every year around “Tax Time” consumers, across the board, get hit with opportunities to “turn that refund into a lot of money” and this year some of…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney The more I read about how little time people have for things they’d like to do the question remains about how to make time for things they…
Read More →Husbands Showing More Concern About Repeal of Alimony Deduction by Stephanie Maloney January 2019 may be far out on the calendar but a survey from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney Even if you don’t have “Olympic Fever” there are always some great moments worth watching. Because I skated competitively growing up in Minnesota I’m reminded how important teamwork is to even…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney The new tax legislation will necessitate adjustments for many people dealing with alimony payments-both paying and receiving. When you start to factor in things like tuition and…
Read More →by Stephanie Maloney If individual stocks or mutual funds are associated with your divorce, whether by mediation or litigation, don’t panic because of the recent market volatility. When people “inherit”…
Read More →Recently Abu Dhabi broke from centuries of tradition and decided to allow non-Muslim expatriates to pursue a divorce through faith-based mediation. Though not a mirror image to western secular mediation,…
Read More →Back in June there was a news story about Richard Williams, the father of Venus & Serena, seeking to evict his estranged wife from their Florida home. A few days…
Read More →by Alison Marcelino and Stephanie Maloney As part of the Conscious Uncoupling training, we attended a lecture given by Judy Waters, MFT, discussing “Healing Breakup Trauma.” In her talk, Ms.…
Read More →As difficult as the divorce process can be there are many subtle financial hurdles that can prove problematic even for an amicable agreement. What happens after the settlement is reached may…
Read More →by Ali Marcelino Recently I completed a Conscious Uncoupling training course conducted by Katherine Woodward Thomas. My intent is to introduce those principles into my practice here at Peace Talks…
Read More →Divorce scenarios are typically stereotyped as long, drawn-out court battles over children and property. If you’re entering divorce proceedings for the first time, you should know there are other options…
Read More →No divorce process is completely stress free, but if you choose mediation to settle your divorce case, you could save on time, stress, and money. While divorce mediation is not…
Read More →You have decided your marriage is not working out. You want to divorce, but your friends have told you horror stories about dragging your divorce through the court system. You…
Read More →At Peace Talks, we know that the divorce process is stressful and creates emotional turmoil. And we also know that experiencing the winter holidays for the first time as divorced…
Read More →Make Mine a $Million Business 2006 Make Mine a $Million Business Award Diana Mercer and Peace Talks are a 2006 recipient of a Make Mine a $Million Business Award Business-Plan…
Read More →During the period of a peaceful divorce and emotional confusion, we sometimes say and write things to our partners that are offensive and inappropriate. Instead of clearly communicating our thoughts…
Read More →Let’s just get this out of the way from the start. There are many ways to get divorced. You can represent yourself – a kind of do it yourself method.…
Read More →In California, there are three ways to end a marriage: divorce, legal separation, and annulment. At Peace Talks we want you to know your options and we will focus on…
Read More →The issue of spousal support is always a part of any divorce case or mediation. The circumstances for an award of spousal support are evaluated individually and there is no…
Read More →The issue of child support is always a part of any divorce case or mediation. The amount of child support you will pay is explained and determined according to the…
Read More →Congratulations! You are considering mediation as the process for resolving your divorce. In contrast to litigation, mediation is the sane, efficient and cost effective way to work through your potentially…
Read More →While California may be a “hot” state, we experience “cooling off” periods too. In a family law context, this “cooling off” specifically applies to the amount of time that must…
Read More →Today, communication is instantaneous. Like the phrase, “a shot heard around the world”, an online post is sent into the media stratosphere with the potential to surface anywhere, be read…
Read More →At Peace Talks, an outstanding divorce mediation office, we feel it is very important that you know the California divorce family law process. Before we embark on explaining the California Family Law Court system, we want to make sure you know that going to court is not the only way to solve family law disputes. Divorce mediation at Peace Talks is an excellent alternative.
Read More →Divorce Resolution Continuum By Diana Mercer, Attorney-Mediator, copyright 2003 The decision to divorce is followed by a number of choices for how a case might be filed and later resolved.…
Read More →At what price sanity? I’m no stranger to divorce during bad financial times. I was admitted to the bar in 1988, during a huge financial downturn. Pretty quickly after that,…
Read More →A client told me this week, “I think that divorce is one of the great failings of adulthood.” If it was only that simple. Let’s face it. We fail a…
Read More →California has its own personality with divorce. One of only 9 states that follows Community Property law, California seems intent on doing things its own way. But a divorce in…
Read More →In response to the recession, Peace Talks now offers a couple of new services for low cost divorce and uncontested divorce California. I hope you’ll keep us in mind if…
Read More →What Causes Divorce? You hear a lot about the reasons marriages end. Usually, fingers point to affairs or money. But marriages don’t end because of events. In 23…
Read More →More and more people are choosing mediation rather than litigation. Why it has taken so long to catch on, when the benefits of mediation are obvious, is beyond me, but…
Read More →There’s often a lot of grandstanding in divorce court proceedings. A lot of people say, “I’ll see you in court!” not knowing exactly what that means. In the moment, they don’t…
Read More →Causes of Divorce “Seriously? You want to end this? You want a divorce? I mean, I know we’ve had problems. I’ve tried to change. I’ll be better. Is this really…
Read More →Putting a price on sanity? There have been so many articles on people who aren’t getting divorced because they “can’t afford it” that it’s making me a little alarmed. The…
Read More →Divorce in California Divorce law varies state-to-state, and California has the distinction of being one of 9 states that have enacted a Community Property law. As a divorce lawyer in…
Read More →I know it’s an oxymoron: nobody wants a divorce, so how could one be good? But when you’re faced with divorce, you have lots of opportunties to make it less…
Read More →The TRUTH IS IRRELEVANT IN DIVORCE. I know that sounds like crazy talk. But think about it this way: When we think of disputes, most of us think that the…
Read More →In response to the recession, Peace Talks now offers a couple of new services. I hope you’ll keep us in mind if you come across couples needing either of the…
Read More →There are eight peace practices which are free and easy to stick to every day. They’ll help you stay sane no matter what, and we all know that sanity is…
Read More →Divorce Advice I Give My Friends I’ve been a divorce attorney for 24 years (youthful appearance notwithstanding). As yo might guess, every single one of my friends (including Facebook friends)…
Read More →Choosing the right mediator is important. You’re going to be talking with your mediator about everything you care anything about in the entire world: Your future, your kids, your home, your job…..and…
Read More →You Want an Uncontested Divorce….but how do you get there? The concept of divorce mediation is relatively new, but recently it has been getting a lot more attention. Especially in…
Read More →Here at Peace Talks, we love Mediation. If you’ve spent any time looking through our site and blog posts, you know that already. It’s an easy sell, because, to us,…
Read More →This is an excerpt from Making Divorce Work. I’m really proud of this chapter….it was difficult to explain in a few pages how to successfully negotiate a divorce settlement. But…
Read More →We see a lot of grandstanding in mediation. I think a lot of clients think they’re going to get To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch style attention in court. The…
Read More →For those of you who’ve found this blog, but not the Making Divorce Work blog, I actually maintain 2 blogs. This one, the Peace Talks blog, is pretty straightforward. Mostly…
Read More →What Causes Divorce? You hear a lot about the reasons marriages end. Usually, fingers point to affairs or money. But marriages don’t end because of events. In 23…
Read More →Causes of Divorce “Seriously? You want to end this? You want a divorce? I mean, I know we’ve had problems. I’ve tried to change. I’ll be better. Is this really…
Read More →Putting a price on sanity? There have been so many articles on people who aren’t getting divorced because they “can’t afford it” that it’s making me a little alarmed. The…
Read More →I know it’s an oxymoron: nobody wants a divorce, so how could one be good? But when you’re faced with divorce, you have lots of opportunties to make it less…
Read More →Family Mediation and Failure Many clients have told me that they viewed getting divorced as a their greatest failure as an adult. Even their body language told me they weren’t…
Read More →In response to the recession, Peace Talks now offers a couple of new services. I hope you’ll keep us in mind if you come across couples needing either of the…
Read More →What Causes Divorce? When thinking about how marriages end, people often look towards distinct events like affairs or money-related problems. What we’ve found in our 20+ years of experience is…
Read More →Divorce Advice I Give My Friends I’ve been a divorce attorney for 24 years (youthful appearance notwithstanding). As yo might guess, every single one of my friends (including Facebook friends)…
Read More →Eleven years ago, I traded in my fancy shmancy car for a used Honda Accord. It wasn’t just a symbolic act; I knew I was going to need the money…
Read More →I have a 25 hour beginning family law mediation course on DVD which I sell on my web site and Amazon.com. As a result, I get questions about how to…
Read More →“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” That’s a quote attributed to Alexander Graham Bell and couldn’t be more true today. As a divorce attorney, you’re preparation…
Read More →This is an excerpt from Making Divorce Work. I’m really proud of this chapter….it was difficult to explain in a few pages how to successfully negotiate a divorce settlement. But…
Read More →http://huffingtonpost.com/diana-mercer If you’ve watched more than one episode of Dateline, you know that almost all one-on-one, non-gang related shootings are family members shooting other family members. I know what you’re…
Read More →Divorce Resolution Continuum By Diana Mercer, Attorney-Mediator, copyright 2013 The decision to divorce is followed by a number of choices for how a case might be filed and later…
Read More →You never thought it would happen to you, yet here you are faced with divorce. Maybe you asked for the divorce. Maybe you’re the one who is being left. Even…
Read More →A Closer Look at Resolving Divorce Conflict Key 1: Be hard on the problem, not the people. We made this the first conflict resolution skill because it’s likely the first…
Read More →A Closer Look at Resolving Divorce Conflict Key 2: Understand that Acknowledging and Listening are NOT the same as Obeying You may be tempted to issue decrees as you…
Read More →A Closer Look at Resolving Divorce Conflict Key 3: Use I-Statements When you’ve spent the better part of your working life mediating and finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts, you begin…
Read More →A Closer Look at Resolving Divorce Conflict Key 4: Give the Benefit of the Doubt. It’s hard to say which of these keys to resolving conflict we like the most.…
Read More →A Divorce Mission Statement Have you thought about how you want your divorce to go? What’s your ideal resolution? Do you see a clear winner or loser? Divorce is one…
Read More →Streamlined Collaborative Practice Protocols Training June 6-8, 2013 Skirball Center Los Angeles, CA The Marina Collaborative Divorce Practice Group along with Co-Sponsor, the Southern California Mediation Association, are excited to…
Read More →There are 8 peace practices which are free and easy to practice every day. They’ll help you stay sane no matter what, and we all know that sanity is at…
Read More →Divorce Wisdom: A Thank You Note to my Former Husband While it’s tempting to just remember the bad parts of your marriage, especially when you’re in the middle of your…
Read More →As a family law mediator who mediates premarital agreements and prenuptial agreements, I’m often asked: What does a prenup look like? Do you have a sample? I’d love to be…
Read More →It doesn’t matter what you call it: Prenup, premarital agreement, prenuptial agreement……doesn’t make the discussion any easier. Honestly, it’s not as much about the written document as it is about…
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →About Prenuptial Agreements When couples start throwing around those dreaded words “prenuptial agreement” (a.k.a. prenup, prenupt, premarital agreement) the inescapable thought is, “Uh-oh, are we planning on getting a divorce?” …
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →You hear a lot of talk about prenups, but what does a premarital agreement look like? Where can one find a premarital agreement sample? It’s hard to find a premarital…
Read More →Thinking about a prenup? There are pros and cons. Pros: You sort things out and make your agreement while you’re in love You have important pre-marital discussions about money, children,…
Read More →It doesn’t matter what you call it: Prenup, premarital agreement, prenuptial agreement……doesn’t make the discussion any easier. Honestly, it’s not as much about the written document as it is about…
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →About Prenuptial Agreements When couples start throwing around those dreaded words “prenuptial agreement” (a.k.a. prenup, prenupt, premarital agreement) the inescapable thought is, “Uh-oh, are we planning on getting a divorce?” …
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →You hear a lot of talk about prenups, but what does a premarital agreement look like? Where can one find a premarital agreement sample? It’s hard to find a premarital…
Read More →As a family law mediator who mediates premarital agreements and prenuptial agreements, I’m often asked: What does a prenup look like? Do you have a sample? I’d love to be…
Read More →Thinking about a prenup? There are pros and cons. Pros: You sort things out and make your agreement while you’re in love You have important pre-marital discussions about money, children,…
Read More →It doesn’t matter what you call it: Prenup, premarital agreement, prenuptial agreement……doesn’t make the discussion any easier. Honestly, it’s not as much about the written document as it is about…
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →About Prenuptial Agreements When couples start throwing around those dreaded words “prenuptial agreement” (a.k.a. prenup, prenupt, premarital agreement) the inescapable thought is, “Uh-oh, are we planning on getting a divorce?” …
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →You hear a lot of talk about prenups, but what does a premarital agreement look like? Where can one find a premarital agreement sample? It’s hard to find a premarital…
Read More →As a family law mediator who mediates premarital agreements and prenuptial agreements, I’m often asked: What does a prenup look like? Do you have a sample? I’d love to be…
Read More →Thinking about a prenup? There are pros and cons. Pros: You sort things out and make your agreement while you’re in love You have important pre-marital discussions about money, children,…
Read More →It doesn’t matter what you call it: Prenup, premarital agreement, prenuptial agreement……doesn’t make the discussion any easier. Honestly, it’s not as much about the written document as it is about…
Read More →What You Need to Know About Prenuptial Agreements Even though prenuptial agreements get a really bad rap, they’re vital documents that protect both people about to enter into marriage. It’s…
Read More →