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, there was a huge mortgage meltdown, sort of like what’s happening now, and everyone’s house was upside down (they owed more than it was worth).…

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 lot of the time. And if we never fail, it means we’re not taking enough chances and not trying enough new things.  People who never…

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 California doesn’t need to be complicated. At least not the legal part. Mediation provides a way for couples to get divorced in a respectful, thoughtful…

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 you come across couples needing either of the following, or if you need these kinds of services yourself: 1) $995 paperwork only service: for couples…

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 years of practice, we have found that divorce occurs when a couple has turned from one another and looked for satisfaction outside of the marriage.…

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 better late than never. There are huge advantages when you mediate your divorce, family law, custody, child support, alimony, spousal support or modification issue.  If…

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 like what they’re hearing, whether it’s in mediation or around the kitchen table, so they say, I’m done with this!” not realizing that saying “no”…

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 what you want to do?”  If you’ve said those words or heard those words, it can be crushing either way you look at it.  Divorce…

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 monetary cost of divorce is one thing. Certainly, divorce mediation is a less costly alternative to fighting it out in court, especially when finances are…

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 Los Angeles, this actually simplifies things (at least initially) because California follows the 50/50 rule. Partners each get 50% of their collective property from the…

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 bad (if not actually good, at least in the long run, in hindsight). I’ve been a divorce lawyer for 24 years, and expert on what…

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 truth is the key to the resolution of any disagreement.  Get to the truth, and you have the resolution to the conflict. Yet, despite the…

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 following: 1) $995 paperwork only service: for couples who already have an agreement and who just need the paperwork, we’ll do all of that for…

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 at a premium at the moment of any divorce. An excerpt from the 8 Peace Practices chapter of Making Divorce Work, our comprehensive book on cooperative…

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) ask me for my advice when getting divorced. I’ve written a couple of books about divorce, and that’s where the official advice is.  This is…

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 so you want to choose someone you feel comfortable with. Mediators are all trained in basically the same way, but each person has a different…

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 Los Angeles, more and more people are starting to appreciate the benefits of an uncontested divorce.  Collaborative divorce and other divorce alternatives, once considered fringe,…

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, it’s a no-brainer.  Just look at a recent example: one couple came into our Los Angeles office looking to get a divorce settlement through mediation. …

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 I think I did it!  How to Negotiate Your Divorce Settlement is the excerpt published by Mediate.com.   Mediate.com, by the way, is a great place to find…

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 mediate from some of the “students” of this taped course. One in particular, a lawyer up north, is my new pen pal of sorts. I’m…