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We help divorcing and separating
clients resolve conflict so they can move
forward. Divorce involves restructuring
family and finances. Almost all divorces start out with
conflict, but even deep conflict can often be resolved. We assist clients reach
agreement in their divorce and separation in a
respectful and cost-effective manner and
where the clients make their own
decisions about their futures and their children.
Although divorcing clients generally make much better decisions for themselves
and their children than strangers can ever do, reaching common ground
that meets the needs of all can be challenging without professional
facilitation, guidance, assistance, and education. Divorce attorney
and mediator J. Mark Weiss provides facilitation,
guidance, and assistance to help you reach consensus in
your divorce instead of an imposed outcome.
For a consultation, call (206) 622-6707 or email
us at
info@mark-weiss.com.
When divorcing clients reach resolutions that best suit their values, goals, and needs,
the resolutions are not just better but also tend to be more durable. We
help clients reach divorce resolutions by listening to our clients and helping them
identify what is most important to them. We then help
our clients create a reality-based divorce settlement that is in
alignment with their own priorities, goals, and needs. In
our experience, Collaborative Divorce and
interest-based mediation are the only processes
that are consistently able to help
clients reach that level of divorce resolution. When the needs of divorced parents are addressed in
a manner that is respectful and preserves their dignity, they are usually also better able to co-parent
their children together.
There are better
ways than divorce court. Instead of having a stranger
make what may be some of the most important decisions
in your life, divorcing and separating couples have
the option of making their own divorce decisions. When
supported by divorce lawyers and other professionals who
are trained in non-court methods of arriving at divorce
settlements, couples can often get a divorce that
better preserves relationships, dignity, and
privacy.
By resolving the conflict and addressing some of the
pain that is inherent in divorce, each
spouse can move forward with his or her life.
This can be done through Collaborative Divorce
and divorce mediation with the assistance of a divorce lawyer who focuses exclusively on helping couples in conflict come to agreement. We
do not view our lawyer's job as going to court to try to
“win” a divorce, because all too often even the “winner”
loses.
Collaborative
Law and mediation in divorce are especially well suited for protecting privacy.
Instead of placing personal information in a public
court record,
negotiations in Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation are
private and confidential. Unlike a court decision, many
of the details of your divorce settlement may even remain confidential
by placing them in a contract. In
Collaborative Law divorces, everyone signs an agreement at the start that
the divorce discussions and proceedings will remain confidential
and that the lawyers' only role can be to focus on
settlement. No other divorce process offers that degree of privacy protection that applies to all
professionals as an inherent part of the structure from the beginning to end.
Similarly, in divorce mediation, everyone signs
an agreement that the divorce negotiations will remain
confidential.
By
helping divorcing parents preserve a working
relationship, Collaborative Divorce allows parents to reach
better solutions for their children and to build a new
and better
co-parenting relationship for their future. In our
experience, parents rarely work better
together after a child custody or visitation fight in court,
and the children are often victims of a court battle in
their parents' divorce. We all know that children learn from
their parents, including lessons drawn from how they
observe their
parents handling their divorce or separation.
Collaborative Divorce is family-focused divorce, and
allows the opportunity for parents to work together to
build a healthy and cooperative parenting partnership
and to model for their
children how to best resolve conflict.
Most divorce lawyers and judges will tell you
that courts are not ideal for the task of
restructuring families. In divorce court, intimate details of a couple's finances and
other matters are presented to a judge or court
commissioner who makes
life-altering decisions
based on the law as guided by arguments made by the divorce lawyers and a
limited amount of evidence that the lawyers may present
under court rules.
To the extent divorce laws provides clear guidance
(often the law does not), the law may not fit your
family's unique circumstances. Divorce court proceedings
are expensive and the outcome is often uncertain and
unpredictable. Often, no one wins. Even when there is a
divorce settlement, the legal maneuverings that preceded
the settlement can often cause unnecessary pain and
resentment and contribute to future problems.
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We believe that
Collaborative Divorce
in particular often results in a higher quality outcome
with less stress and greater control than going to court. Collaborative
Divorce is a process that is optimized to help couples
reach well-informed agreements with full legal support
from trained attorneys that helps preserve relationships. With skilled support,
divorcing couples are usually able to reach their own resolutions
that are right for them, where the needs of both are
addressed. The divorcing couple's
agreements are placed into legally binding divorce
settlement documents. Mediation is another
effective process
where a neutral mediator assists the divorcing couple
reach agreements, and where the parties often also have
attorneys to advise them.
Additional information about Collaborative
Law, mediation, and divorce is on the
Family Law and Divorce Options
and
Collaborative Divorce
pages of this website.

Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation are both highly effective
processes that have been successful for many divorcing couples. Collaborative Divorce is well-suited for complex divorces,
such as cases involving complicated property and
business issues, special needs children, and unique
parenting issues where preserving post-divorce
relationships is critical even when the conflict is significant. While Collaborative Divorce
or divorce mediation can work well for many divorcing
couples, no process can be right
for everyone. We encourage you to review this website
and others, and to read and explore to learn more. We can assist you in evaluating your
options, so you can find
the divorce process that is best suited for your unique
situation. Part of our job is to help
you identify the factors so you can decide for yourself whether Collaborative
Divorce, divorce mediation, or another divorce process is
best for your unique circumstance.
In addition to Collaborative Divorce and facilitative
divorce mediation, we also provide consultation services
both to separating and divorcing clients
and to attorneys,
including second opinions and consultation on divorce negotiation strategy.
We can provide the benefit of an outsider's perspective to
your family law case, focusing on what is most
important to you. Our significant experience, skill, and
advanced training allows us to provide these services on
a cost-effective basis from a Seattle family law attorney who
is highly experienced in
litigation, but whose sole focus is now on settlement
and resolution of
divorce and family law matters.
Rated among the 25-best family law attorneys in Washington State by Washington Law and Politics magazine,
lawyer
J. Mark Weiss has for the last 22+ years helped couples divorce.
Mark has extensive
divorce litigation, mediation, negotiation and Collaborative Divorce experience.
Mark received the
“Attorney of the Year” award from the Washington State
Bar Association Family Law Section, was named a
Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial
Lawyers, and
has
continuously been on the “Super Lawyers” list of
Washington Law and Politics
Magazine since 2007. Having retired from divorce litigation
after more than two decades inside
and outside the
courtroom, he is now
entirely focused on non-adversarial family law dispute resolution.
He also trains other attorneys, financial specialists,
and mental health professionals in the Collaborative Divorce
process. For
more background information, click the “About Us” tab
above.
Besides divorce (dissolution of marriage), divorce attorney J. Mark Weiss also works
with couples in other family law matters, such as legal
separations, parentage/paternity, domestic partnership,
unmarried couple, and modification of child support and
parenting (custody and visitation) matters. We also
provide second opinions and assist other attorneys to
get difficult cases back on track. We are conveniently
located in Seattle, and serve the greater King County
area.
From our convenient Seattle location, we serve clients
from throughout King County and beyond, including Bellevue, Kirkland, Mercer
Island, Redmond, Everett and surrounding areas. Mark
provides guidance, insight, skill, and support to help
guide you through your divorce or separation, or other
family law matter.
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