Video – Divorce Mediation Attorney Bill Leininger Describes Traditional Divorce Proceedings

Ray Hrdlicka - Presentador - Attorneys.Media

Hi, this is Ray Hrdlicka with Attorneys.Media and today we’re sitting with Bill Leininger, an attorney who specializes in a very unique area of law called divorce mediation. He practices in Staten Island, New York, and we’re going to be sitting down with him talking about all the intricacies of divorce mediation.

Bill, I want to say thank you very much for being here with us today.

Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Richmond County, NY

Glad to, Ray.

Ray Hrdlicka - Presentador - Attorneys.Media

So, let’s get right into it. Obviously, the statistic in… probably the world, but in the US is that about 50% of the marriages end in divorce. So, there’s an alternative to the traditional court associated divorce, and that’s divorce mediation. A lot of people don’t understand that they could potentially do this, so let’s just ask a general question to begin with. What is divorce mediation?

Bill Leininger – Divorce Mediation Attorney – Richmond County, NY

Divorce mediation is an alternative method of people attempting to get divorced. Alternative to the traditional in-court litigation mode. And that would mean one person serves court papers on the other one, usually by a process server. They have a certain number of days to answer the charges and possibly to counterclaim. And then they generally would meet with the judge on a preliminary conference. The judge would schedule a specific order laying out all sorts of things that have to be done over the next two, three, four months.

Things like exchanging income tax returns, exchanging books and records if there’s a business involved, but possibly if there are children, and there are serious issues with regards to which parent should be the primary custodial parent, the children may have to be interviewed by a child psychologist. Very expensive and sometimes costs $10,000 to $12,000. Very stressful on the children.