Premarital discussion about finances and money is a good thing. But if the goal of that discussion is a formal, signed prenuptial agreement, the process is fraught with problems and can pose significant damage to the upcoming marriage. Prenuptial agreements Read More …
Articles
Prenups – Don’t Lawyer Up, Mediate! Part II: “The Solution”
In the first part of this article, Prenups — Don’t Lawyer Up, Mediate! — Part I: “The Problem”, I discussed the dangers in doing prenups the usual way — lawyering up and making it like an adversarial business deal. This Read More …
Where does Marital Mediation Fit In?
During the past quarter century, academics and others writing about mediation have characterized styles of mediation as belonging to one of three categories: “facilitative”, “evaluative” and “transformative”. The categories are quite clearly defined. Facilitative Mediation “Facilitative” mediation (the original type which Read More …
How To Save Your Marriage
One of the most interesting and fulfilling parts of my law practice is to assist people who are contemplating divorce or in the midst of divorcing. I consider this work in helping people though a very significant transition in life Read More …
Governor Sanford – Give Marital Mediation a Try!
by Laurie Israel, Esq. Like many of you other mediators out there, I am always very pained to read accounts of our celebrity brethren who are struggling with their marriages. The media is insistent. The klieg lights focused on these Read More …
Happy Life, Happy Wife
by Laurie Israel, Esq. Did you ever hear the expression “Happy Wife, Happy Life”? This overused adage seems to help some people (generally husbands) focus on their wife’s happiness in order to secure a peaceful, happy marriage. It seems quite Read More …
Taking the War Out of Our Words
by Laurie Israel, Esq. Intrigued by the title of the workshop and feeling that I needed to work on my skills in managing effective communication, I came to the Toronto IACP conference early to take the all-day Pre-Forum workshop on Read More …
25 Secrets to a Great Marriage
by Laurie Israel, Esq. As a practicing divorce attorney and divorce mediator, I’ve met a number of couples that, if they had been given some good advice (and had remembered that advice) a few years or even months earlier, they Read More …
Yours, Mine, and Ours — Strengthening Marriages With Financial Agreements
by Laurie Israel, Esq. The marriages of people who marry for a second time experience stresses, particularly when there are children from a previous marriage. Most of these problems are predictable. They are generally solvable with patience, good will, and Read More …
Why I Perform Weddings
by Laurie Israel, Esq. I have always cried at weddings. When I ponder as to why, I think that it is because I am …..genuinely concerned for the about-to-be newlyweds, and especially so for the young ones. As a 61-year-old Read More …