Colorado Divorce Mediators
Innovate Family Mediation Process, with Flat Panel Television
Monitors
Large LCD Displays Bring Visual Power to
Collaborative Divorce Planning in Mediation
At Divorce Resolutions®, LLC, Colorado Center for Divorce
Mediation™, we have
long pioneered the innovative use of technology in
delivering the highest quality, cost-efficient family and
divorce mediation services. For several years, we have
envisioned bringing large flat panel television displays to
aid in our work with mediation clients.
In 2006, we realized this goal, becoming the first family
and divorce mediation practice in the country to abandon our
sole reliance on “old-school” presentation-style “flip charts” to
chronicle mediation discussions and to consider and develop
with our clients divorce planning options and scenarios.
 To this end,
our Colorado family mediation practice acquired three Dell™ “Stratosphere”
liquid crystal display (LCD) high definition television and
wide aspect displays. Each of our mediators' offices now
features a 37 inch flat screen television
monitor, and our conference room features a 32 inch
flat screen television monitor as well.
Chosen for
their high contrast ratio and brightness, these digital flat
screen monitors display, for all to consider in the
mediation process, our custom divorce planning tools and powerful
standardized
software applications — given assumptions and data
collaboratively developed and inputted on
Larry's or
Chris' tableside laptop computer.
Our laptops in turn permit large screen display and direct client
consideration of, real-time internet and office intranet
resources, by link to our encrypted
wireless "Wi-Fi" network from its high gain
broadcast access point.
Benefits of This Technology in Divorce Mediation
Powerful Visuals, in Reviewing Options
 In
mediation, as in life generally, “One picture is worth ten thousand words.” The power of artful “brainstorming” — the creative
visualization of options and alternatives — has long been recognized as one of
the unique advantages of mediating divorce and family law issues.
By working on-screen and directly with
our clients, we can much more easily do this work. Education
is often desired and useful in mediation, and we can
efficiently present Colorado divorce law substantive and
process information with PowerPoint® slides.
Real-Time Collaborative Divorce Planning
 More important, these monitors substantially ease our
clients' considering the typical issues of divorce. In
contrast, to the mediator “preparing” his vision of a number
of
possible alternatives in advance, our new technology allows
collaborative real-time client participation in divorce and
separation planning,
including:
-
framing and analyzing the fairness of different approaches
to dividing marital assets and assigning debts with our own custom Excel®
marital property division tool;
-
reviewing assumptions of both parties' after-divorce living
circumstances and family budgets;
-
considering alternatives (including income and overnights)
in calculating so-called
“Guidelines” child support with the standardized tools preferred by Colorado
Courts; and
-
assessing the real impact of various approaches to
spousal maintenance (what both households have to spend, after divorce, after
support, and after taxes!), using powerful divorce tax planning software.
These scenarios and alternatives detailed in
our work in-session and on screen are saved and usually
printed for clients' further review and consideration
between sessions!
After only several months of working
with the large flat panel Dell™ television monitor displays,
the power of their visuals in mediation is clear. Our clients
consistently rave about their use. They tell us that the television monitor displays
greatly facilitate their considering options and finding
mutually-satisfying divorce solutions in their work with us
in mediation. As mediators, we look back and wonder how we
earlier practiced our craft without these tools!
Our work in this regard was featured in the respected blog,
MediatorTech! See MediatorTech's article
Technology in the Mediation Room: Innovation from
Colorado Divorce Mediators.
As we have from the inception of our
business, we continue at Divorce Resolutions® to seek out other fresh approaches
and innovative practices — in our mission, as professional mediators, of easing the challenges of divorce and
separation.
 See
the latest changes at Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation™
in our article on new
mediators’ technology and tools.
(See also our website’s section on
Why Choose Mediation? for compelling reasons to
consider mediation of your divorce case or parenting dispute.) To learn more about
our
collective and individual professional mediator backgrounds, and to find out if
Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation™ might be an appropriate choice for you and your
family — consider the Why Choose Us, and Meet Our Mediators
sections of our
website. (These include Larry and Chris' individual
Colorado mediator profiles.)
You may also wish to specially consider
our separate article on
Choosing A Divorce Mediator.
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