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Negotiating a Good Divorce Settlement

by Nathan Dawson

Divorce can get complicated with all its legal and financial details and disagreements. It's no wonder that you are seeking divorce help and divorce support. The most important piece of information to learn from the get-go about how to get a divorce is that the outcome depends on you. Your willingness to negotiate and seek mediation can actually make it a low cost divorce. It might even turn out to be an easy divorce if you stay flexible, yet firm about your rights.

Going through a trial is seldom a good idea, particularly with regard to women and divorce. Financially, men usually have the upper hand since they are traditionally the bread-winners and, as such, they usually get paid more. That gives them more buying power to hire the better lawyer; if the case goes to trial, a wife in this sort of situation usually finds herself headed toward financial ruin. For this reason, life after a divorce trial can be even harder than it was before.

Here is a little divorce advice that will make coping with divorce less difficult: spare yourself and your children the headache and choose mediation.

Mediation gives both parties the power to negotiate alimony, child support, custody and an equitable division of assets and liabilities. In this way, you can use any divorce information you acquire to increase your negotiating power.

When trying to negotiate a good divorce settlement, keep the following in mind:

- When you are not satisfied with any of your spouse's terms, prepare a logical rebuttal, rather than get defensive and emotional. By all means, speak up!
- Be willing to try and consider your soon-to-be-estranged spouse's well being.
If things get ugly, remember that a change in your approach (yes, it's hard) can turn things around 180 degrees.
- Just do your best to avoid having the case go to trial. The benefits of mediating your own agreement include keeping your marital problems confidential, sparing yourself of open court proceedings and the related costs, speeding up the process and not to mention helping to make it all easier on the kids.

Nathan Dawson writes for http://www.lifeaftermarriage.com a great online source for finance information.

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