Dispute Resolution
Dispute Resolution (DR) preserves and rebuilds relationships, promotes cooperation, builds consensus, and creates agreements that will prevent future disputes.
Mediation has many benefits:
- Empowers People To Manage Their Own Disputes
- Promotes Peace In The Family And Business
- Reduces Emotional Costs
- Saves Money And Assets
- Preserves Relationships
- Protects Children
- Improves Communication Skills Within Families
Read more about Dispute Resolution
Business Mediation
Business mediation is a more effective alternative to complex litigation. Mediation is a less expensive method for businesses to resolve disputes. Mediation is appropriate for all types of cases, including conflicts in the workplace, disputes between businesses and disagreements between customers and businesses.
Our mediators help Massachusetts companies and small businesses resolve disputes that would otherwise require costly resources, time and money to resolve. Contact Parker Mediation and speak to our Massachusetts business mediation attorneys.
Divorce Mediation
In every crisis there is opportunity. Our divorce mediation lawyers recognize that in each conflict there is also an opportunity to bring people together, clarify issues, identify common ground, discuss options that meet the participants’ needs and rebuild relationships.
Attorney Divorce Mediators are particularly useful as advocates for individuals engaged in divorce mediation as they thoroughly understand the mediation process as well as the laws for divorce in the Massachusetts courts.
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Elder Mediation
As loved ones age, elder care decisions require advanced planning. When families face tough decisions, mediators can help. Parker Mediation appreciates that seniors want to maintain individual control, respect and dignity. Our mediators will help the family by facilitating discussions concerning safety, finances, living arrangements, health care, and other supportive services.
Mediation and consulting services can help families to manage conflict as they face challenging decisions impacting the individual senior and extended family. Parker Mediation will provide assistance for decision making about proper care, fiduciary responsibilities, and when needed, guardianship. Elder Mediation helps families to craft solutions that provide smooth transitions for your loved ones, while reducing conflict for the family.
Family Estate & Probate
Probate issues such as will contests and estate disputes are also handled at Parker Mediation. Our services include mediation for families regarding family trusts and estates, jointly owned real estate, and resolution of family business or workplace disputes. In addition, Parker Mediation can assist in closely held business succession planning.
Planning in advance can often avoid litigation, excessive costs, and unwanted tax consequences. In addition, non-adversarial family law mediation can resolve sibling or multigenerational family disputes while preserving the relationships among family members.
Child Custody and Parenting Mediation
Family Mediation is designed to help the parties develop a plan for continued parenting following a divorce or separation and also in cases where the parties were never married.
The mediator will help you to focus on your strengths and use those skills to promote the best interests of the children. Parents generally want to maintain control over the decisions that need to be made for their children. Mediation helps the parties to develop skills to communicate with each other to coordinate the parenting plan. The mediator will not decide who should be the “primary caretaker”. The parties themselves will make this determination after the parenting schedule is created. Family Mediators facilitate the resolution of conflict, empower both parents, improve communication, and focus on the children.
Parker Mediation can help if you have a question about primary custody, sole custody, joint custody, or shared custody.
Read more about Divorce and Your Children.
Legal Separation
Mediation is not only for people seeking to divorce, mediation can be used for those who wish to remain married, but want a legal separation. A legal separation is a vehicle used by parties to obtain an agreement enforceable through the court that controls the parties’ obligations to each other, while remaining married.
Couples unsure about divorce can take time to decide if that is what they really want. A legal separation permits the parties time to reconcile prior to going through a divorce. If the parties later decide they do want to divorce they may pursue this option to end the marriage.
A trial separation permits parties to experience what it might be like living separately, before making their final decision to divorce. This may be done through a legal separation, but may also be accomplished informally or by written agreement. The advantage of an informal agreement is that it is easily changed. The parties can try it for a while, make changes, reconcile, or decide to make the separation permanent and formalize it through a legal separation or divorce.
Post Divorce Issues
Changes in circumstances may occur that require some aspect of your agreement to become outdated or in need of modification. When there is a material change in circumstance, either party may return to court and file a Complaint for Modification. Parties that have already participated in mediation know that they have the option of making changes on their own and/or returning to mediation to create a new agreement that can then be jointly filed with the court for approval. Even if you have not used mediation before, you may use Parker Mediation services for modifications to your divorce agreement.
Matters pertaining to children are always modifiable by the court. The most common post divorce issue involving children is the amount of support to be paid from one spouse to the other. Massachusetts has enacted child support guidelines that are presumed to be the correct amount of child support due. It is not uncommon for the calculation of Child support according to the guidelines to become a post divorce issue. People frequently change jobs and therefore may earn more or less income, causing a change in the amount of support available for the children.
Prenuptials / Antenuptial Agreements
Prenuptial and cohabitation agreements are contracts between married and unmarried partners that provide a contingent plan for the possibility of divorce or separation. Prenuptial agreements must be reasonable at the time they are entered into as well as at the time they are sought to be enforced.
Antenuptial agreements may be used by persons marrying for the first time, but are also useful for people marrying a second or subsequent time, particularly when parties want to preserve their respective estates for children from prior marriages, address stepfamily issues and/or outline succession for family businesses.
Same Sex Marriage
The Goodridge case legalized same sex marriage in Massachusetts, providing the same rights, responsibilities and protections to married couples of the same sex:
- Reciprocal Financial Support
- Domestic Relations Laws
- Property, Estate & Probate Laws
- Tax Laws
- Family and Medical Leave Laws
- Medical Decisions
- Spousal Benefits Laws
- Tort Laws
Ending relationships involving same sex marriages are resolved by the same courts that resolve disputes between married couples. Parker Mediation provides mediation services for parties involved in non-traditional relationships, including civil unions, same sex marriages, domestic partners, cohabitating partners and unmarried couples.
