Description of Practice

Co-Mediation with the team of Kerri Quintal, ESQ and Betsy Ross, LICSW offers an innovative approach to separation, divorce, or reconciliation that is family-friendly, and affordable. A traditional adversarial divorce can destroy family relationships and deplete family finances. Our unique, out-of-court divorce mediation process offers a sensible alternative for those couples and parents who want maximum control of their divorce and decision making process, and to ensure their family’s future. One neutral family lawyer-mediator and a neutral counseling professional-mediator  skillfully guide you through all of the legal, financial, and emotional hurdles, at a pace that works for you both, so you can reach well-informed, private agreements that will work for everyone in your family. This enables you, no matter the conflict, to make your best choices and craft agreements that fit your family and your situations, while preserving your family relationships in the process.

Quintal and Ross, both experienced divorce mediators, will help you gather the most important information; work with you to generate and explore options; and guide you through negotiations toward well-informed and mutually acceptable agreements for you and for your children’s brighter futures! Call today for a free 30 minute consultation to see if co-mediation by Quintal and Ross is right for you!

Approach

Our cost effective process is family centered and client controlled so it keeps each of you in the driver’s seat. You have the ultimate say in your decision making throughout the process and with regard to the final product we will provide to you: a Memorandum of Understanding or a Separation Agreement. We will explain the advantages and disadvantages of each of these to you, upon request.

We encourage our clients to consider using the services of mediation-friendly attorneys for consultation purposes, to answer any legal questions that may arise during the process and/or to review the final agreements made (we can provide you with our resource list of mediation-friendly attorneys). Depending on your situation, we can also provide you with other helpful resources (financial professionals, mental health counselors, realtors, etc.) so you control the decision making process.

Fees

We will work with you from the start of your divorce process until it is finished. We offer a free 30 minute consultation at the beginning, to introduce ourselves, answer your questions, and help you determine if our process is the best fit for you.

After the divorce mediation process is completed, we will even check back in with you to see how you and your family are doing and to ensure that the agreements in place are working well for all of you.

No two families are alike so no two mediations are alike, either. That means we cannot predict how many sessions or how much assistance outside of mediation sessions might be needed by the two of you to complete the tasks at hand along with the assistance and guidance of our expert mediators.  Clients meet with us individually at first, (for a personal intake and goal setting session) and then together as a couple for a series of two hour mediation sessions.  Clients pay as they go for mediation sessions, so payment for these is due at the time of service. We also ask for a retainer which will cover our out-of-session work time (for meeting summaries, emails, agreement drafting, etc.)

Many clients finish mediation in four to six two-hour sessions, though as we said above, no two mediations are ever alike so we cannot guarantee how long your mediation process might take. While some clients need more time to fully understand the issues and to make the necessary decisions to complete the process, a few clients need less. Please know that throughout the process, you control the pace of our work and you control how slowly or quickly you make decisions. This means you also control the cost of your mediation.