Once in a while, I like to highlight one of the many success stories that come through my practice. I do this because I am passionate about showing the difference mediation or the collaborative divorce process can make, both for the divorcing couple and the family. Please enjoy reading Tom’s story.
My name is Tom Reddy. A couple of years ago, my wife and I decided we were going to get a divorce. My wife researched different ways of completing the divorce and came up with the idea of collaborative divorce. She looked at several different law firms to do this, and we decided that Judy Williams and the Center for Mediated Divorce would be the best one for us. I was very impressed when I met Judy and sat down and talked with her. Now that the whole process is over, I believe my perception of being impressed was justified. She did a great job for me. Robbie (my wife) had the idea of not wanting to go through an adversarial situation, so she researched different options and came up with mediation and the collaborative divorce process. We chose collaborative divorce as opposed to litigation, even though litigation seems to be the way most other people did their divorce. We feel choosing the collaborative process has worked out well for our daughter, Shannon. She’s a happy kid. Some of my neighbors who have children that she hangs out with have mentioned to me that they were wondering if there would be a change after the divorce, and they have said that Shannon is just the same happy kid that she always was. As a matter of fact, recently I was talking with somebody I know who is going through a divorce and we discussed that when you hire two lawyers who are going to be on opposite sides trying to get the most from the opposing party, all it’s going to do is create friction and animosity between those two parties. That animosity is not going to go away after the divorce is over. My daughter has told me stories about her friends whose parents have gone through divorce, and how much fighting the parents are doing. A lot of the fighting is about money, and they’re arguing all the time. They may not even be living together at the time but the kids still know what is being discussed in the phone conversations. My daughter has explained to them that her experience was different. Her parents got along fine during the divorce, and they still get along fine. It’s because of the collaborative process.