Maryland Family Law Mediation

You and your spouse or co-parent know the needs of your family better than anyone else, including a judge. Unfortunately, it’s often difficult for couples to communicate and negotiate well enough on their own to arrive at an agreement about child custody, support, property division, and other important family issues. If this is the case for your family, family law mediation may be a good choice for you. In mediation, you work with a neutral party, the mediator, who facilitates communication, keeping negotiations focused and supporting you in reaching agreement about a variety of family law matters, including divorce, custody, parenting time, and financial issues. Mediation allows flexibility to craft solutions tailored to your family’s needs.

In addition to the freedom to create custom resolutions, mediation offers other advantages. Mediation can allow conflicts to be resolved in a shorter time frame than traditional litigation. It is also private, as it is conducted behind closed doors, not in open court. Because attorney involvement is often minimized, mediation is usually cost-effective; with the guidance of a mediator, most of the work is done by you and your partner. A mediated agreement is often more durable and satisfactory than a judge's order, because those that are impacted by the terms of the agreement are the same people that created the agreement's terms. As with Collaborative Divorce, if the meeting is not successful, the information disclosed during the mediation process may not be used in Court. Therefore, mediation creates a safe environment for communication and problem-solving.

Effective Howard County Family Law Mediator

Shelly Ingram has been a family law mediator since 2005, and has worked with numerous couples to evaluate whether mediation is the best dispute resolution option for their families. If mediation is the right choice for you, she works with you to identify issues that need to be resolved, and help you and your spouse with the difficult work of exploring options and communicating your needs in an honest and respectful manner. Shelly is skilled at keeping you focused on the task at hand and the crafting an agreement you will both find acceptable.

The Law Office of Shelly Ingram serves clients throughout Maryland, including Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. Major cities we serve include Columbia, Baltimore, Bethesda and Silver Spring.

We invite you to review our FAQs to learn more about whether mediation may be a good choice for your family, and to contact the Law Office of Shelly Ingram at (301) 658-7354 or info@shellyingramlaw.com to schedule a consultation. We look forward to helping you create the future you want for yourself and your family.