When you know you are right and your spouse is wrong, why should you compromise with your spouse? Why not play hardball and insist on getting the custody, child support, alimony and property division you want in your divorce?
While you may feel like taking a hard line and sticking to it, you may want to rethink that approach in the end. Taking a hard line in your divorce case comes with risk. Going to court is always a gamble. Trials are one of the few forms of legalized gambling.
Settlement and compromise give you a certain result. The outcomes of trials are dependent upon judges and juries and are never guaranteed. No matter what evidence and witnesses you have, you can never be sure how it will come across in court. You may freeze on the witness stand or your witnesses may let you down. Or the Judge may prohibit you from using some of your best evidence. The Judge may be having a bad day and ignore you or disregard the most important facts in your case. Or the Judge or jury may not believe you. And the costs of trial are astronomical. Most people could buy a brand new luxury car for what they would need to pay in legal fees just for a trial.
So settling is often a good idea. You need to take settlement seriously because it is often, but not always, the best and safest course of action. And mediation is a great way to settle a divorce or child custody case. while mediation comes with a cost, that cost is a drop in the bucket compared to cost of trial.
Putting your money into preparing your case for mediation is often a much better use of your resources. The best mediation outcomes come about because of case preparation. No one gets everything they want at mediation but the more work you put into preparing for mediation, the more likely you are to get more of what you want and settle some or all of your case at mediation.
So rather than refusing to budge off of your list of demands, be open to the most efficient and economical outcome in your case. In the long run, you may get more of what you want and pay less in attorneys' fees if you are willing to compromise and be open to creative solutions.
