Separation and divorce can be painful and confusing. At Fields Family Mediation in Charlottesville, Virginia, our goal is to help you navigate the stress and chaos of divorce or separation as calmly and effectively as possible. Mediation in divorce often dramatically reduces the emotional and financial damage that high conflict and lengthy legal battles can produce, with improved outcomes for you and your family members. In addition, working directly with your ex-partner (rather than solely through divorce attorneys) can strengthen the foundation for better co-parenting and other necessary communication in the years ahead, even when that seems hard to imagine right now. Ideally, you will leave mediation with a plan for your future that is clear, enduring, and thorough. Most importantly, the decisions are yours, not the court’s.

Our Services

In divorce or separation mediation, separating or separated partners or spouses work collaboratively with a mediator to make specific, realistic plans for:

• Child custody and parenting arrangements

• Division of property and debt

• Financial support of children

• Spousal support

• Any additional issues that are significant to you at the time of divorce or separation, including custody of pets, plans for taxes, insurance of any type, and so forth

Fields Family Mediation also offers services for modification of existing child custody agreements, recalculation of child support in the event of a change in circumstances, and mediation in other family matters where clients wish to develop a specific action plan on a family issue of concern. FFM does not, however, offer family counseling or mental health services.

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Why Mediate?

Mediating a divorce or separation has a number of potential advantages over litigating (going to court with individual divorce lawyers). These include:

• Lower cost

• More control over decisions

• Typically less time-consuming

• Less emotional strain and lower intensity conflict

• Laying the groundwork for a better partnership as co-parents in the future, especially when minor children are involved

Mediation can be started before or during a separation or divorce, and can even be used years later to negotiate changes if an older modifiable agreement (such as one for child custody or support) is no longer working well for you.

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Fully Remote Mediation

After more than a year of positive experiences with online mediation during the COVID-19 crisis, Fields Family Mediation now provides mediation services entirely through remote videoconference. Online mediation is simple to access, allows clients to discuss sensitive matters in a location of their choosing that maximizes their comfort, convenience, and privacy, and allows FFM to offer a variety of helpful online tools (e.g., sharing financial worksheets directly on screen, using break-out rooms to meet separately with clients when needed). Client feedback about online mediation services has been overwhelmingly positive, even when participants had no prior experience using videoconference platforms. Virtual mediation has also allowed FFM to expand services to a larger geographic area, including those where mediation might not be otherwise available. Clients from any area of Virginia are welcome to mediate at FFM; you do not need to live in Charlottesville or Albemarle County.

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Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict.

~ Dorothy Thompson, renowned American journalist