Preparing for online virtual mediation
Virtual online divorce mediation lets you resolve your divorce matter while working together as if you were in a room sitting near each other. Virtual online divorce mediationalso lets you meet at a time outside regular office hours and on weekends. No need to drive to an office, find a babysitter for young children or, during our current times, go into an office building, elevator, waiting area and conference room used by other people.
Getting started to attend a Zoom or other online mediation or conference you will need to choose your device. Whether you are using your phone, tablet, laptop, iPad or desktop you will want to make sure that you can see and hear other participants. Are you using headphones? Do your headphones require a usb device, plug in to your device or are they Bluetooth? Are you using your device microphone or do you have a separate microphone? Does this work? It’s best to try out the ‘test your microphone’ if your device offers that feature.
You might want to think about where you will be during the mediation. Finding someplace quiet and private is important. If you are at home with other family members you might want to post a note on the door stating ‘quiet please….. in a meeting’. Before the meeting, if you have children or other people at home, you might want to let them know that you need some time alone to attend a meeting. Other things you might want to think about are: does your dog need a walk or do children need lunch or a snack?. Of course, life happens and if a child needs you or you need to take a break, just let the divorce mediator know and we can take a break.
In order to join in for online divorce mediation I use Zoom. Zoom offers an online user I.D. and password for greater protection for privacy. I still offer a free 30 to 45 minute free consultation online or on the phone. If we all decide to work together, we will sign a mediation agreement. The divorce mediation agreement will be signed ahead of time stating that the meeting may not be recorded or screen shot. The mediator will also have to admit each participant into the online meeting to ensure that those attending the mediation meeting are only the agreed participants. Once the meeting has started we can enter gallery mode so all participants can see each other just as if we were in a room with each other. Don’t worry if you aren’t familiar with these terms or locations as will go over this at the meeting. The meeting will still have an agenda that we can follow and use as a guide. Once everyone comes online and we get to introduce ourselves, we will get started and review a few rules of waiting to speak, using the chat to post questions and using the raised hand and where various icons such as gallery maybe on your device.
All parties will have a chance to participate and parties will have the ability to see other if their video is on. If video is not your thing, then we can do without or have a phone conference.
The meeting concludes with whatever we all have agreed to prepare for the next meeting. The mediator sends out meeting notes. The meeting notes review the meeting, work that everyone needs to do before the next meeting and lets you follow the progress from meeting to meeting.
