Oregon Divorce Mediation
​Mediator Matthew House, J.D.:
Components of the Process

Divorce is two things at once: A very personal experience for human beings with concerns, goals, emotions, and questions; and a court-connected event with legal, financial, and technical details to address carefully. Matthew House understands the personal and practical aspects of divorce; he is equal parts thoughtful and thorough. Matthew will encourage you to view each component of a divorce through that holistic lens.

The process can be done in any order, but the following sequence makes sense for most people:

• Introduction: Most likely, your concerns and needs can be addressed through mediation, but it's important to start with an overview of the process to ensure the same.
• Income: Disclosing all income and ensuring that net pay is calculated correctly is crucial to the fairness of the process and the accuracy of the documents.
• Budget: Developing a thorough and realistic post-divorce budget for yourselves and your children, if you have children younger than 21
• Asset Division: Understanding the extent of your property, including the ownership status and the valuation, which may vary depending on the type of asset
• Debts and Credit: Disclosure of all marital and separate debts to determine their equitable distribution
• Spousal Support: Determining the form, amount, and duration, if any, of spousal support to be exchanged
• Child Custody and Parenting Time: Drafting a regular parenting time schedule, exceptions to that schedule, a framework for collaborating as co-parents, and any other stipulations you wish to include
• Child Support: Completing the child support worksheet and, if both parties agree, modifying it to suit your preferences and supplementing it to include expenses that cash child support is not meant to encompass on its own
• College Matters: Details of financial support for children who attend (or will attend) college or vocational training.
• Estate Planning: Reviewing your existing wills or trusts and determining what changes may be needed post-divorce
• Tax Issues: Considering tax-related aspects of mediation and your future filing statuses and dependency exemptions
• Insurance: Changing or adding to your insurance coverage, if advisable based on the decisions you make in mediation
• Specialty Areas: These include, but are certainly not limited to, subjects such as: LGBTQ+ divorce, military divorce, divorce when an adult or child has special needs, divorce involving older adults
• Marital Settlement Agreement: The document that Matthew will draft, which includes all of the decisions you have made in mediation
• Divorce Forms: Referral to a trusted paralegal to prepare your divorce Forms and file them with the court
• Post-Divorce Process: Understanding what to do after your divorce is final to execute decisions you made in mediation
• Resources: Professionals from Matthew's network who can assist you in various fields, if you wish

The specific components are outlined in each respective subsection of the Topics to Address section.