Family Law Matters – Episode 46 – Arbitration

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(0:00 – 3:43)
Hi everyone, I’m Dr. Michael Mantell and I’m pleased to be with Bonnie Rabinovitch-Mantel, the owner and managing partner of the Primus Family Law Group. Hi Bonnie. Hi Michael, and I am so pleased to have with us today Sean Torley.

He is not only our senior paralegal, I mean he has to deal with me on a daily basis, but he’s also the director of operations. So everything that goes on in our office, he’s involved in or causing trouble with. Well, hello there everyone.

Yes. Hi, how is everyone today? It’s a pleasure to be here. It’s great to have you, Sean.

We’re going to spend a couple of minutes with a question that keeps popping up over and over again. And I think it’s a legitimate question that people have. One of the things that when people think about divorce is this intense, conflict-ridden, expensive fight that is going to wind up in court and go on forever.

And Primus Family Law Group seems to have specialized more and more in a, let’s call it an effective, much more peaceful approach under the heading of arbitration. Sean, you take the first call often times of clients who have that expectation it’s going to be a fight. How do you begin to explain, it doesn’t have to be, that the skills of Bonnie and her team and your team at Primus allow them to pivot into something called arbitration.

So what is arbitration? Tell us a little bit more about that. Well, for me, it’s a way to offer, when I first take a client call, one of the first questions I ask is whether or not there’s any agreement on any of the issues that might help dial down some of the acrimony. And if there is, and it seems that both sides are amenable to it, I will almost immediately start a line of questioning that has to do with an alternative to the litigation, which is something that we definitely advocate.

And there’s a lot of different reasons for that in terms of the client benefit or the party’s benefits, as it were. So basically what it entails is we don’t represent either. They’re parties, they’re not clients.

And we come in and we go through the motions and go through the law and go through their facts and make sure that we can offer suggestions of compromises where maybe there is a little bit of disagreement, or at least show them that there’s a way to, like I said, minimize the acrimony and maximize the benefit. There’s a bunch of different reasons why it’s more effective. I mean, cost being one, obviously it saves a lot of money over having to do protracted litigation.

The time savings is another one because you don’t have to drag it out through the court system. It’s better on the kids if you have kids because it’s just a friendlier atmosphere in an unfriendly situation most of the time. And it’s more fair.

I mean, ultimately the parties get to decide what happens to their stuff and their children and how that’s going to be worked out as opposed to having a judge decided for them. See, I don’t even have to be here, Michael. This is why Team Primus is so amazing is that the paralegals get it.

You know, the staff gets it. It’s not just the attorneys trying to manipulate a situation. We all get the benefit of doing arbitration or mediation, you know, when that’s a possibility instead of litigation.

(3:44 – 4:27)
Thank you for that clarity. This is why Team Primus is efficient, positive, and avoids unnecessary wars. So, Sean, Torley, thank you.

Bonnie, thanks for another great edition of Family Law Matters. People want to get in touch with Primus Family Law. How do they do that? Well, you can reach us at 619-574-8000.

Sean or Malani will take your call and start that intake process. Or you can reach us at info at PrimusFamilyLaw.com or just our website, www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com. Sounds great. Thanks very much, both of you.

We’ll see you next time. You bet. Have a great day.