Portland Divorce Mediation Process

After your consultation, if you proceed with me as your divorce mediator, you will complete intake information and mediation sessions. The number of sessions varies based on the complexity of the case and whether you have minor children.

Discovery is the process of exchanging information in a mediated divorce. It ensures that both parties and the mediator can discuss the issues with a clear and accurate understanding. In discovery, I will request various documents that answer questions such as:

• In whose name is the account or asset titled?

• What type of account or asset is it?

• Where is it located? (This may be a physical location or a financial institution.)

• What is the value or current balance?

• When did you acquire it? If one of you had it before the marriage, who owned it, and what was its value on the date of marriage?

• What is the process for dividing or transferring it, if you decide to do so as part of your divorce settlement?

You can find more information on the discovery process on a topic-by-topic basis in my Discovery reference.

Intake and discovery

The Marital Settlement Agreement is the compilation of all of the decisions you have made in mediation.

It includes the division of your assets and liabilities, the assignment of child support, the decision to seek or waive spousal support, the particulars of spousal support if you have chosen to include it, your legal custody agreement, your parenting plan, and many other details.

Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA)

I am the only Portland-area divorce mediator who provides you with a second, full-length written agreement at no additional cost.

Because mediation notes are not released to clients because they are confidential by statute, the Supplemental Agreement is a middle ground between session notes and a written record of only the stipulations you actually included in your MSA.

The Supplemental Agreement will also allow you to include details that might be too minute or personal for a judge to need to read. A divorce is a public record. There may be details you want to agree to between yourselves but not make available for others to see.

To understand my Supplemental Agreements and how the one I will draft in your mediation process will provide you with more information and a more detailed record than any other mediator in the tri-county area, please find out more here, on my Supplemental Agreement page.

Supplemental Agreement

After the MSA is revised and ready to become a binding agreement, I will refer you to a paralegal to whom I regularly refer clients. The paralegal will ask you to complete a brief questionnaire, and you will sign a Limited Scope Representation Agreement.

The paralegal and her supervising attorney, as a team, will complete, review, and file your divorce documents electronically with the Circuit Court of the county in which at least one of you resides.

Once the divorce paperwork has been submitted to the Circuit Court, your case will be assigned randomly to a judge. The judge will review your divorce paperwork and sign the judgment.

You will not have to appear in court. Once the documents are signed by the judge and recorded by the clerk, you will be officially divorced.

The paralegal and the attorney will monitor your case through the court process and will notify you when it has been finalized. You will then receive an electronic copy of the signed divorce judgment and can order a paper copy from the courthouse if you wish.

If you would like more information about the post-mediation process concerning the preparation and filing of your divorce forms, please review my legal forms and process page.

Filing and finalizing your divorce