Resolve Your California Law Matter Outside of Court On Your Terms
As a California mediator, consulting attorney, collaborative attorney, and divorce coach, I help clients save their money, time, and sanity by reaching resolutions of divorce and custody matters outside of the courtroom litigation process.
My Services
Click on the services below to learn more about how the Mediation and Law Office of Jeremy Masys can help you resolve your California divorce or custody matter.
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When couples choose mediation for their divorce, they agree to work together with a neutral Mediator to create their own settlement. Mediation avoids much of the cost, delay, stress, and trauma of court or prolonged attorney negotiation.
As your Mediator, I’ll guide both of you in a calm, focused setting to understand each person’s needs and find fair solutions on support, custody, and property. I’ll also help with the steps to legally finalize your divorce or other family law matter, while keeping costs and delays down.
I act as a neutral facilitator, not as a lawyer for either party, but I draw on my knowledge of California family law to help you reach a final agreement. The typical mediation process involves:
Brief phone calls with both parties to confirm interest.
Joint sessions to identify issues and develop solutions,
Separate meetings if necessary to address each person’s concerns.
I draft the settlement agreement that finalizes the case while guiding both parties in any additional paperwork that is necessary.
Through this process, while it is necessary to file paperwork with the court, neither party will be required to appear in court before a judge.
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Consulting family law services are great for clients who “want to keep lawyers out of it” while also getting the legal help they need in their divorce. Also referred to as “limited scope representation” or “unbundled legal services”, it is best initially explained by what it is not. Most people think of attorneys acting as the “attorney of record” in a case, which generally means, among other things, the attorney’s name is on the filings, the attorney appears in court on your behalf, the attorney drafts most if not all the paperwork, and the attorney negotiates with the other side. Which is expensive. And not always the dynamic a client wants or needs, particularly when the process is relatively amicable and/or the issues are straightforward.
With limited scope consultation, you as the client remain “self-represented” and choose what legal services you want the lawyer to perform, which can be as simple as providing legal advice and guidance when needed, but can also include assisting in drafting legal paperwork and other tasks.
How I Help
Legal advice and guidance before filings have been made (the "exploring your options" phase)
Ongoing guidance during a case, including drafting legal paperwork and communications
Limited scope court appearances if necessary
Only Pay For the Help You Need
One of the major benefits of limited scope consultation is that it can keep your legal costs far lower than they would beotherwise, because you are only having the attorney perform specific tasks on your behalf. In some cases, a client only needs sporadic “check-in” consultations with the lawyer. In other cases the lawyer drafts or edits the legal paperwork. In any case, the client decides what services they want and need with the input of the consulting attorney.
Many divorces are successfully resolved for clients with this model, particularly for those clients who have basic competence and confidence in managing their affairs and communicating with the other party. And because this model can minimize the attorney’s role, this can help keep tensions low as you resolve your divorce quickly and cost-efficiently.
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In a collaborative divorce, both parties retain their own attorneys with an agreement that neither party will proceed to litigate the case in court with those attorneys. This model eliminates the mismatched incentives of a client who wants to resolve a divorce quickly and efficiently and an attorney who would rather increase their billing exponentially by fomenting conflict and delay through the court system (shocker: yes, these lawyers exist, and by estimation, it’s unfortunately the norm). Collaborative law is particularly useful for couples with more complex issues to be resolved but who want to avoid the cost, tension, and delay of litigating their issues in court.
I have been trained in collaborative family law through the Mosten Mediation Training course, and I work with other collaborative professionals across Southern California. For further information regarding whether collaborative law is the best way to resolve your divorce or custody issue, please contact me for a free consultation.
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Through my divorce coaching services, I am able to help men and women in all 50 states to navigate their divorce and custody challenges by working with them in a non-legal context to discuss problem-solving approaches and organize their strategy for resolving their family law issues in a cost-efficient and healthy manner.