Divorce Mediation Online, Anywhere in California

California has one Family Code, and it does not change at a county line. The rules on community property, on child and spousal support, and on custody are the same whether you live in San Diego, Fresno, Redding or anywhere between. So the education I give you both, and the agreement we build out of it, does not depend on which part of the state you are in.

There are parts of California with very few mediators to choose from. Before the remote option, couples living there faced a long drive or no real mediation at all. Since I began mediating online I have worked with couples all over the state, and with couples who are not in the same place as each other. I have handled a number of cases where the spouses were located all over the world.

One thing to be clear about, because it is the part people get tangled in: I only handle California divorces, and a California divorce needs at least one of you to be living in California. One is enough. If your spouse has already moved to another state or country, your divorce is still filed with a California court, under California law, and where the two of you sit during sessions changes none of that.

Exchanging your documents

Nothing about the disclosure requirement changes when you mediate online. California requires both spouses in every divorce to exchange a full and accurate account of what they own, what they owe, and what they earn and spend, and the court requires each spouse to certify that the disclosure was complete before it will enter a judgment. That is state law on every path, not a mediation rule and not mine.

What changes is only the logistics. You gather your statements where they already are. I oversee your preparation of the forms. The exchange happens between the two of you.

Which county your divorce is filed in

A California divorce is filed with a specific superior court, not with the state, so your paperwork names a county. Which county depends on where you have been living. You do not need to work that out before you call me. It is part of the job.

Naming a county does not send either of you there. The filing is paperwork I prepare and submit. It does not decide where we meet, either. Where your case is filed and where each of you sits during a session are two separate questions.

The fee is the same wherever you are. You pay one fee as a couple rather than each of you paying separately, you will know what to expect before we start, and there is no surcharge for meeting online and no discount for coming in. The court's own filing fee is separate.

What each package includes, the hourly option, and how all of it compares with taking a divorce through the courts are set out on the costs page.

What couples gain by meeting online

The commute disappears. A couple of minutes before a session you open your laptop, click the link, and we start, which matters more than it sounds when the alternative is two people leaving work and driving across a county.

If you have children, there is no childcare to arrange around a session that a drive would have made into half a day. Being at home also tends to mean the paperwork we need is within reach rather than back at the house. And I would rather people were comfortable while we do this work than sitting up straight in a conference room, because the conversation goes better that way.

What to plan around

A reliable connection matters, because clear understanding is not optional in a conversation that ends in a binding agreement. When somebody's signal keeps dropping, there is no certainty about how much they have actually heard.

Home has its own distractions too: children who get bored with whatever was arranged for them, a dog, a doorbell, a neighbour's mower. Most couples plan around them and they never become a problem.

I have now mediated hundreds of divorces on Zoom, and I have not seen a meaningful difference in how often they succeed. Both work well. It comes down to what the two of you prefer, and I have written about the trade-offs at more length.