Unless you had an arranged marriage, your relationship was probably an agreement between you and your spouse. Any marriage should be a series of negotiations — from which house to buy and where to go on vacation to what to have for dinner and what color to paint the fence.
So why is it that, when it comes to ending a marriage, most people do not even consider negotiating? Why are so many people happy to let someone they have never met make the decisions for them? That is what will happen if you take your divorce to court; a judge will make the decisions that will affect the rest of your lives.
Choosing mediation is a way to negotiate not only the outcome of your divorce but your future. However bad the relationship between you and your spouse, one last effort to talk to each other and agree on something is in both your favors.
Mediation takes less time than a court divorce, and, thus, saves you money, too. There will be a third party present, but their job is not to issue orders but to help you find an acceptable solution.
Surely you want to have some say in your future? If you do, then seek legal advice from a Massachusetts attorney with experience in alternative divorce resolution. If mediation does not work out, you still have the option to take your divorce to court, but you have nothing to lose by trying, and a lot to gain.