The Process
The divorce mediation process with Matthew House, J.D. is simple, economical, efficient, and amicable.
By choosing divorce mediation with Matthew, you could be finished with your divorce in the time it would take in a lawyer-facilitated divorce just for one spouse to file a petition and the other to respond. Mediation gives you the same result, but with money left in your bank, energy left in your brain, and civility remaining toward your former spouse. Even more importantly, Matthew emphasizes the well-being of your children and teenagers.
Matthew looks forward to your call or email to begin the divorce mediation process. The most common starting point is a one-hour consultation for the discounted fee of $145, to discuss in detail your goals and concerns.
- You will have a one-hour consultation with Matthew at his Beaverton, Oregon office or via Zoom video. The consultation is an opportunity, at a discounted fee of $145, to learn about how a mediated divorce will meet your needs and and ask general questions.
- Following the consultation, you will typically have several full divorce mediation sessions of two hours each -- usually two sessions if you have no minor children, and usually three sessions if you have minor children. During mediation sessions, Matthew will walk you through all of the decisions you will make. He will provide you with examples and guidance. Ultimately, the decisions are yours. Matthew will not coerce you, take sides, or make the decisions for you. His role is to give you options you may not have considered, to discuss the practical effects of the decisions you intend to make, and to provide you with the benefits of his law degree and 17 years of experience providing mediation services to over 1,500 families in Metro Portland.
- Once all of the decisions are made, Matthew will write the Marital Settlement Agreement (MSA), which will include all of those decisions. You will read the MSA, and Matthew will revise it at no cost.
- After you approve it, it will go to Matthew's contracted paralegal to be added to the divorce forms required by the county.
- Then, you'll take (or mail) the forms to the courthouse in the county in which at least one of you resides.
- Within about one month, but often more quickly, your divorce will be finalized by the court. Except in the rarest circumstances, neither you nor your spouse will have to appear before a judge.
By choosing divorce mediation with Matthew, you could be finished with your divorce in the time it would take in a lawyer-facilitated divorce just for one spouse to file a petition and the other to respond. Mediation gives you the same result, but with money left in your bank, energy left in your brain, and civility remaining toward your former spouse. Even more importantly, Matthew emphasizes the well-being of your children and teenagers.
Matthew looks forward to your call or email to begin the divorce mediation process. The most common starting point is a one-hour consultation for the discounted fee of $145, to discuss in detail your goals and concerns.