Divorce can be financially challenging, but you can navigate it smoothly with the right steps, especially through mediation. At Peace Talks, we specialize in helping couples achieve amicable divorces, including…
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When you find yourself on the divorce road, you know in your gut that everything you hold dear will change. You will find yourself with a different financial portfolio, often…
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While going through a divorce can be one of life’s most stressful events, that stress can be reduced by keeping the conflict low. The first step in keeping conflict low…
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You and your spouse have decided to separate, and you are looking for an amicable split. What is the best approach? Collaborative Divorce is an alternative option to litigation that…
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When going through a divorce, your emotions can feel like a never-ending grief rollercoaster and the ups and downs of this emotional journey can be hard to understand. What you…
Read More →Divorce mediators can make or break a divorce agreement. In order work with an effective divorce facilitator, you and your soon-to-be-ex need to vet them by asking a series of…
Read More →Life is full of twist and turns! Often, we don’t know what road we should go down. The “divorce” road is filled with enormous potholes that wreak havoc on custody,…
Read More →While many of us may believe that estate planning is only for the rich or the elderly, you should know that this process is essential if you have children. At…
Read More →I came across a nice synopsis of why mediation for your divorce may be the smartest choice. It is safe to say that most couples facing divorce expect the experience…
Read More →With just less than half of married partners ending in divorce, therapists over time have developed some suggestions for making the process possibly less painful for everyone. You will see…
Read More →In getting to a mutually agreeable divorce settlement we make progress, literally, by getting couples to communicate with each other. Many couples find it difficult to communicate. Our therapist mediator will…
Read More →The following was excerpted from an article in the Boston Herald by Wendy Hickey Should We Try Mediation? The answer is yes for most people. The majority of couples we see…
Read More →There are a lot of commonalities with divorce and lessons from shared experiences can be extremely helpful when going through extremely stressful situations like divorce negotiations. Some great suggestions were…
Read More →I came across an article in Divorce Magazine by Susan E. Guthrie that echoed familiar misconceptions that we come across at PeaceTalks, as do many of our colleagues. Here are a…
Read More →For people screening referrals they have received to mediation services some questions are best dealt with at the very beginning of the process. Even couples that may have already made…
Read More →Here are a few of the questions that come up most often when people are their evaluating their options in relation to the divorce process. If you have some questions…
Read More →I came across this exchange with Jim Tankersley who covers economic and tax policy for The New York Times and Ailsa Chang from NPR. Jim gives a nice summary of the…
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 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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →Setting Clear Boundaries Often, your marital or domestic situation does not meet the level of serious violence where you have to flee, but you are subject to consistent intimidation or…
Read More →Well, there’s really no improvements on divorce and custody litigation. But mediation is definitely a better way to go. Less costly, faster, confidential, on your schedule, tailored to your needs….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 →Kids and Custody Do you remember being a kid? At my age it’s a little blurry, but I can tell you that adults often misunderstand how kids behave and think. …
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 →I went to a meeting today with the Honorable Thomas Trent Lewis at the Los Angeles Superior Court. He wanted to update the family law bar, forensic accountants, and custody…
Read More →I know. It’s an oxymoron–nobody wants a divorce to begin with, so how could a divorce be good? There are a lot of ways to make the best of the…
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 →I get asked a lot about Child Custody. It’s not surprising, since a parent’s love for their children is bigger than any financial settlement. Oftentimes, a parent feels that getting…
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 →Truth is a beloved institution. It’s the cornerstone of our legal system. “The Truth of the Matter.” “The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth.” “I Want the Truth,” says…
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 →As a divorce lawyer and mediator here in Los Angeles, California, I get the opportunity to see a lot of clients with varied backgrounds and personalities. There are common threads…
Read More →Choosing whether to proceed in court with a custody dispute is serious business. It affects your spouse, who you may be trying to deny custody altogether, but most especially, it…
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 →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 →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 →REVIEW: HBO’s DON’T DIVORCE ME Review by Janae Monroe Peace Talks Mediation Services peace-talks.com Divorce is difficult for everyone involved, especially the children. While parents intend to…
Read More →If you’re reading this, you’re probably not in such a good place right now. However it happens, realizing that your marriage doesn’t make you happy and that something has…
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. …
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 →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…
Read More →Why Your Kids will Thank you for Mediating By Alan Brady, guest blogger Finding a way to share custody of childrenafter a divorce can be an incredibly difficult task.…
Read More →Low Cost Mediation Services Peace Talks Mediation Services offers a sliding scale for couples who earn less than $100,000 (total) and who have less than $200,000 in net assets. There…
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 →Mediation Training Reviews: Center for Civic Mediation (live) and Peace Talks Mediation Services DVDs
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