Mediation can save money

When disputing parties are able to sit together with a skilled mediator, mediation can be a tremendous money-saver with considerable benefits.  Mediation is a confidential process that can proceed must faster than using the courts, and the results are yours; not handed down by a judge or jury.

Attorney fees are expensive for litigation

In the heat of the moment, it is easy to forget that every angry letter a party instructs their attorney to write is answered by an angrier letter from the other side.  Simple math is instructive:  If two parties are each paying their attorneys $375 per hour (an average hourly rate in Ventura county), just one angry letter from each side, billed at three-quarters of an hour, will cost the parties a total of $562.50.  When the letters start flying back and forth, one can almost hear the sound of dollars disappearing, usually for no good reason or result.

Attorney fees are not the only cost of litigation

Just to file a case in Superior Court costs more than $400, per party.  So, even before the attorney fees invoices start appearing, everyone has “ante’d up” for the privilege of allowing a Judge to make a decision that, possibly, neither party wants.