Understanding Amicable Settlement (Overview) (Family Lawyer Advice)

Want to know more about amicable settlement?

Are you in a divorce or separation proceedings…

Are you dealing with child support or custody battles…

Are you seeking spousal support or alimony…

Or maybe you are ending your common-law relationship…

You can take advantage the benefits of amicably settling your family law case or finding a way to settle your case through alternative resolution methods.

Ok.

Let’s do it.

Table of Contents

What is an amicable settlement?

Amicable settlement is a process where parties to a dispute or a lawsuit find ways to resolve their differences in a friendly and non-contentious way.

To achieve an amicable settlement, the parties need to be willing to make concessions for the sake of reaching an agreement.

Without the desire to make an effort to settle a legal case, it will be nearly impossible to achieve an amicable settlement.

When parties reach an amicable settlement, they’ll either do it on the basis of their own desire to resolve their dispute or will use the services of a mediator or a lawyer to support them in the process.

What are the benefits of an amicable settlement?

There are many benefits in amicably resolving a dispute.

You will have less uncertainty of getting a desired outcome than if you put your faith in the hands of a judge
You will save money in less costly legal proceedings where you will note waste your money in unnecessary court proceedings
You will have no time pressure to negotiate your settlement terms as opposed to dealing with strict Court mandated deadlines for a disputed case
You will not have the stress of dealing with the Court system and the anxiety of a litigated case
You will save money by spending less on legal fees and Court related costs

They say that that even the worst amicable settlement is still better than a Court judgment as you will have been directly involved in the content of your settlement agreement.

What does a divorce amicable settlement agreement include?

A divorce amicable settlement must mandatorily include certain terms and lay out the foundation of the agreement of the parties on several points, called the ‘accessory measures’ to a divorce.

The accessory measures in a divorce legal proceeding includes:

Establishment of the ground of divorce, typically separation for over twelve months;
Agreement on the division of property, assets and liabilities
Understanding on parenting obligations, custody, access rights and child support payments
Agreement on whether or not spousal support is to be paid

There may be other terms that the parties may wish to include in their settlement agreement unique to their case but the above points represent the baseline that is expected by the law and the Courts.

Keep in mind that even with a mutually agreed settlement agreement, the Court will ultimately review the agreement and has to accept it.

The Court has the right to question or even refuse to ratify an agreement that it feels is not equitable or appears to be unfavorable to a party.

As a result, it would be advisable to reach an agreement that is generally fair to both parties and respects the spirit of the law.

Are there alternative dispute resolution mechanisms?

There are several other dispute resolution mechanisms that separating couples can take advantage of such as mediation and settlement conference offered by the Courts.

Mediation

Mediation may be suitable for one case while a settlement conference offered by the Court may be suitable for another.

Let’s explore them and see what they are and when it would be a good option to amicably settle your case.

Mediation is a process by which the parties attempt to resolve their differences with the help of a licensed mediator.

In mediation, the couple will be in control of driving the negotiation and will be generally negotiating directly with one another with the help of the mediator.

If the couple is able to achieve an agreement in principle, then the mediator will help them draft their settlement agreement as well.

The mediator will have a ‘facilitator’ role and will guide the conversations and steer the couple in the right path to reach an agreement.

The role of a mediator is unlike that of a judge however.

Where a judge has the legal power to enforce a decision on the couple, a mediator does not have the power to impose any decision or impose a party to agree on something that they do not agree with.

The mediator’s role is to find a way to have the couple achieve an agreement between themselves that they both can live with without ‘imposing’ or ‘forcing’ anything on them.

If the mediator ultimately sees that he or she cannot help the couple achieve a mutually satisfactory settlement, then the couple will be referred back to their lawyers or asked to consider other means to resolve their dispute.

Another means for reaching an agreement is through the settlement conference services offered by the Courts.

Settlement Conference

A settlement conference service is a service offered at no cost by the family Courts.

If you attend with your family lawyer, then you’ll be responsible to pay your lawyer’s fees of course.

A settlement conference can be arranged only if the couple agrees to voluntarily participate and declares being open to making concessions for the benefit of settling their case.

The settlement conference will typically last half-day to a full day and will be presided by a judge from the family Courts.

The judge assigned will not be acting as a judge tasked to making a ruling against any of the parties but will act more like a mediator trying to help the couple reach an agreement.

Considering the settlement conference is driven by an active judge, although this judge will not make any binding decisions against the parties but his or her opinion and feedback will have much more significant weight in convincing the couple to reach an agreement.

Generally, the settlement conferences are highly successful in helping settle family law disputes.

The settlement conference is perhaps more suitable for couples who do not have a level of communication good enough to be able to participate in mediation.

Although the couple’s family law case may be more adversarial, they are still able to find a level of compromise with an authoritative figure like a judge acting as a ‘mediator’ of a sort.

If this option can be considered in any family law case, then the participants have something to gain.

The only downside is that if you attend a settlement conference with your lawyer and a settlement cannot be reached, then the time spent would result in a cost to you.

However, this may be a small expense to risk if you can have a chance to settle the case and avoid an even more costly trial.

Value that our family lawyers can bring you

Our family law lawyers are experienced in out-of-Court negotiations and family law cases.

In some cases, you may find that you can handle your case and thus represent yourself both in dealing with the opposing party and in Court.

If you are able to exercise this option, evidently, you will be saving in lawyer fees and the financial burden of your case may be lighter.

On the other hand, some others will want to retain the services of a lawyer to support them in their family law case or divorce.

This support will also include an out-of-Court negotiations and activities leading to an amicable settlement.

Should you feel you need the support of a lawyer, our family lawyers and divorce lawyers can be leveraged to help you in your amicable settlement negotiations.

Alternatively, if you wish to pursue by self-representing, then, we have made available tools and resources on our website to help you in this process.