Posted on 09/21/2002 5:47:18 AM PDT by Captain Shady
Attorney pledges to make divorce more civil A new divorce mediation company — the only one of its kind in Spartanburg County — promises a Christian approach to a legal procedure often fueled by decidedly un-Christian sentiments.
By Tom Langhorne
A new divorce mediation company — the only one of its kind in Spartanburg County — promises a Christian approach to a legal procedure often fueled by decidedly un-Christian sentiments.
Divorce Mediation Ministries, a private company owned and operated by Spartanburg attorney Barry Bland, proposes to help couples craft divorce agreements without the finger-pointing lawyers and ugly court battles that sometimes characterize the process.
Bland said any couple that chooses Divorce Mediation Ministries can work with a qualified mediator and a licensed attorney in three sessions to find points of mutual agreement on asset and debt division, child custody, visitation and support issues.
A South Carolina court-certified mediator himself, Bland will supervise all cases as either a mediator or an attorney. State Supreme Court rules governing mediation do not allow him to appear in court as an attorney in any divorce in which he acts as a mediator.
After legal documents have been formulated for submission to a Family Court judge for final approval, Divorce Mediation Ministries would seek a hearing at which a part-time staff attorney would present the agreement in court.
A seminary student for the past two years, the 45-year-old Bland says he has secured the services of three college-educated Christian mediators and three attorneys, all of whom will be paid for their services.
“The legal process is one built around conflict and accusation, and sometimes it’s a win-at-all-costs process where winning and losing becomes more important than the people involved,” he said. “But South Carolina law recognizes and allows another approach. What we offer is for people who don’t want their divorces to be ugly.”
Bland, who estimates that divorce cases comprise 60 percent of his practice, acknowledged that some couples don’t want to play nice.
“One-third of divorcing couples are just having a good time hurting each other, and another third are somewhere in between that and wanting an amiable split,” he said. “We’re shooting for the two-thirds who don’t necessarily want to fight, and many of those are couples with children who recognize that they’re going to be working together in the future anyway.
“Some lawyers are paid by their hours, and they can be motivated to find new things to fight about. Right now, if you want an amiable divorce, you have to hope by sheer chance that you both hire attorneys that are like-minded.”
Bland said his company offers an additional inducement to divorcing couples who may lack the stomach for a protracted court fight.
“In a divorce, contested litigation involving two lawyers typically costs anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000,” he said. “Our costs, including mediation and negotiation sessions, attorney fees and filing fees, is about $1,200.
“And there’s no charge at all for an initial meeting.”
Court records indicate that between 90 and 100 divorce decrees are processed every month in Spartanburg County. Bland said his company may not reduce that number, but he hopes it will reduce Family Court time spent in contentious hearings.
Georgia V. Anderson, chief administrative Family Court judge for the 7th judicial circuit of Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, said she has “absolutely no problem with” Bland’s new company.
“If both (divorcing) people are comfortable with working out their differences that way, it may make it easier to move on and easier to abide by the terms of their agreement,” Anderson said.
Anderson said mediation has been mandated in some South Carolina counties in some cases involving the custody of children, including divorce cases — but that has not happened in Spartanburg County.
“I know of no one else who makes this their exclusive business,” the judge said. “I’m looking forward to seeing (Divorce Mediation Ministries) get started.”
Bland said mediation itself is nothing new.
“This is taking mediation and applying it to a setting where it is direly needed, namely the Family Court system,” he said. “There is no other court system where lives are torn apart as much; other court systems are nowhere near Family Court in that regard. That’s why physical altercations are routine in Family Court.”
Bland said he hopes Divorce Mediation Ministries, which is temporarily based out of Bland’s Magnolia Street offices, will grow into a large company with full-time employees.
“But it started when clients who had come to me because they heard I was a seminary student began telling me they wish someone was offering this kind of Christian divorce mediation,” he said. “It hit me that there’s a need out there.
“This could end up being my ministry.”
Sorry for waiting all day to reply.It is very true wrote you wrote.I cannot argue with the Good Book.
"I hate divorce," says the LORD God of Israel, "and I hate a man's covering himself with violence as well as with his garment," says the LORD Almighty.So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith.
Malachi 2:16
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