Choose a More Respectful Divorce
We help divorcing and separating clients from Issaquah resolve conflict so they can move forward. Divorce involves restructuring your family and finances. More and more Issaquah couples are choosing a divorce where the court is minimally involved. We focus our efforts on assisting clients reach agreement in their divorce and separation in a respectful and cost-effective manner. Divorce attorney and mediator J. Mark Weiss provides facilitation, guidance, and assistance to help you reach agreement. For a consultation, call (206) 622-6707 or email us at info@mark-weiss.com.

The Family Court (Divorce Court) Has Limits in Its Ability to Restructure Issaquah Families
As hard-working as it may be, the court is simply not ideal for the task of restructuring families. In divorce court, intimate details of a couple's finances and other matters are presented to a Court Commissioner or Judge who makes life-altering decisions based on arguments made by the divorce lawyers and the limited amount of information that the lawyers can present. No one wins and the outcome may not even fit well. Fortunately, there are much better ways: instead of turning over their most important decisions to lawyers and judges, divorcing and separating couples in Issaquah have options so they can make their own decisions and divorce in a manner that better preserves their relationships, dignity, and privacy. By resolving the conflict inherent in divorce, each spouse can move forward with their life. This can be done through Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation. 

Family Law in Addition to Divorce
Besides divorce (dissolution of marriage), we also work with Issaquah couples in other family law matters, such as legal separations, parentage/paternity, domestic partnership, unmarried couple, and modification of child support and parenting (custody and visitation) matters. We also provide second opinions and assist other attorneys to get difficult cases back on track. We are centrally located in Seattle, with good freeway access from Issaquah.

A Divorce Settlement Is Better for Issaquah Couples Who Divorce
When divorcing clients reach resolutions that best suit their values, goals, and needs, the resolutions are not just better but also more durable. We help clients reach divorce resolutions by listening to our clients and helping them identify what is most important to them. We then help our clients create a reality-based divorce settlement that is in alignment with their own priorities, goals, and needs. In our experience, only Collaborative Divorce and interest-based mediation are able to consistently help clients reach that level of divorce resolution.

A Divorce Resolution Helps Protect Your Privacy
Collaborative Law and mediation in divorce are especially well suited for protecting privacy. Instead of placing personal information in a public court record, negotiations in Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation are  private and confidential. Unlike a court decision, many of the details of your divorce settlement may even remain confidential in Washington by placing them in a contract. In Collaborative Law cases, everyone signs an agreement at the start that all of the divorce discussions will remain confidential. Similarly, in mediation, everyone signs an agreement that the divorce negotiations will remain confidential. No other divorce process offers that degree of privacy protection as an inherent part of the structure from the beginning to end.

A Divorce Resolution Is Better for Children
By helping divorcing parents preserve a working relationship, Collaborative Divorce allows parents to reach better solutions for their children and to build a new and better co-parenting relationship for their future. In our experience, parents rarely work better together after a child custody or visitation fight in court, and the children are often victims of a court battle in their parents' divorce. We all know that children learn from their parents, including lessons drawn from how they observe their parents handling their divorce or separation. Collaborative Divorce is family-focused divorce, and allows the opportunity for parents to work together to build a healthy and cooperative parenting partnership and to model for their children how to best resolve conflict.

Collaborative Divorce and Mediation for Issaquah Families
We believe that Collaborative Divorce in particular often results in a better quality outcome with less stress than going to court. Collaborative Divorce is a process that is optimized to help couples reach well-informed agreements with full legal support from trained attorneys in a manner that helps preserve relationships. With skilled help and support, divorcing couples are usually able to reach their own resolutions in a manner that is right for them. The divorcing couple's agreements are placed into legally binding divorce settlement documents. There are well over 100 lawyers in Issaquah and King County who have been trained in Collaborative Divorce.  Mediation is another effective process where a neutral mediator assists the divorcing couple reach agreements, and where the parties often also have attorneys to advise them.

Suitable for Many Divorce and Family Law Cases
Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation are both highly effective and have been successful for a large number of divorcing couples. Collaborative Divorce is well-suited for complex divorces, such as cases involving complicated property and business issues, special needs children, and unique parenting issues where preserving post-divorce relationships is critical even when the conflict is significant. While Collaborative Divorce and divorce mediation can work well for most divorcing couples, no process is ideal for everyone. We can assist you in evaluating your options, so you can find the divorce process that is best suited for your unique situation.

Divorce Mediator, Consultation, and Settlement Lawyer
In addition to Collaborative Divorce and facilitative divorce mediation, we also provide consultation services both to separating and divorcing clients and to attorneys, including second opinions and consultation on divorce negotiation strategy. We can provide the benefit of an outsider's perspective to your family law case, focusing on what is most important to you. Our significant experience, skill, and advanced training allows us to provide these services on a cost-effective basis from a Seattle family law attorney who is highly experienced in litigation, but whose sole focus is now on amicable settlement of divorce and family law matters for couples throughout the region, including Issaquah.

Over 20 Years of Expertise Serving Issaquah Couples as a Divorce Attorney
Rated among the finest family law attorneys in Washington State by Washington Law and Politics magazine, lawyer J. Mark Weiss has for the last 22 years helped couples divorce, with his extensive divorce litigation, mediation, negotiation and Collaborative Divorce experience. Mark received the “Attorney of the Year” award from the Washington State Bar Association Family Law Section, was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and has continuously been on the “Super Lawyers” list of Washington Law and Politics Magazine since 2007. He is now entirely focused on non-adversarial family law dispute resolution, and trains other attorneys, financial specialists, and coaches in Collaborative Divorce. For more background information, click the “About Us” tab above.

Convenient Seattle Law Office - Serving Issaquah
From our convenient Seattle location, we serve clients from Issaquah, and from throughout King County, including Issaquah and surrounding areas.  Mark provides guidance, insight, skill, and support to help guide you through your divorce or separation, or other family law matter. 

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