Divorce Resource Center of Rhode Island
Our Staff‚ Company Mission Statement and President’s Message
President: Lori A. Grover‚ N.C.P.M.
Lori A. Grover is a Divorce and Family Conflict Mediator trained and nationally certified by Lakewood College‚ a member of the National Association of Certified Mediators (NACM)‚ and a member of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR).
Vice–President: Kevin J. Grover
Finance‚ Marketing and Webmaster
Our Mission Statement
Our Organization’ s Goals:
• To guide‚ educate‚ empower‚ and support individuals and families through the difficult financial‚ emotional and lifestyle transitions that accompany Divorce.
• To work together with our local network of Legal‚ Financial‚ Real Estate and Counseling professionals toward achieving the goal of helping our divorcing clients and their children remain financially and emotionally secure and stable‚ both during and after their divorce.
• To provide professional caliber Divorce Mediation services and private‚ confidential consultations to this end‚ ensuring that families experiencing the difficult challenges of divorce are provided the necessary tools to make sensible‚ informed decisions‚ helping them move forward to successfully rebuild their lives and move on.
A Message From the President
According to the National Marriage Project of Rutgers University's report: The State of Our Unions: 2007‚ between 40 and 50% of marriages end in divorce. Unfortunately for many couples‚ their divorce marks the beginning of an adversarial‚ traumatic and financially devastating process known as divorce litigation. That being said‚ even under the best of circumstances this method of divorcing your spouse almost always leaves a lasting negative financial and emotional impact on a couple and has an unforeseen way of altering your life long after the Final Judgment divorce papers arrive in the mail.
Because of my specialized divorce and family mediation training combined with the experience of my own divorce‚ I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to approach divorce from a non adversarial posture whenever possible with not only a solid understanding of the process‚ but with a plan. Beginning any other way‚ especially in the current economic climate‚ can have tremendous repercussions which may take years to recover from.
In my practice we are seeing a trend that is shifting more and more couples away from the painful‚ expensive and uncertain nature of the adversarial Family Court system toward Divorce Mediation. And by doing so they are making a conscious choice to approach their divorces amicably‚ openly and responsibly. This provides them with an environment to explore and discuss their options‚ reach equitable agreements and most importantly‚ maintain control over the decisions that will affect their lives well into the future.
Interestingly enough‚ even though mediation is perceived as a “new” approach to resolving conflict between two or more parties‚ the process dates back in this country to the 17th century Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and has roots that stretch back all the way to Ancient Babylon, Classical Greece and the Roman Empire. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the evolution of alternative dispute resolution‚ or Mediation began it’s refinement and growth into what it is today. Perhaps the fact that 80% or more of mediated cases resolve successfully is suggesting that getting back to the ‘uncluttered’ way of resolving conflicts such as divorce should be viewed as the first option as opposed to a last resort when litigation becomes too expensive or destructive.
Of course the success of divorce mediation is based on the cooperative effort of the couple in negotiations‚ however‚ the process provides additional benefits such as helping the couple establish a foundation for a different type of relationship which stresses the importance of honest communication with each other that will begin once the divorce is completed. From a strictly financial standpoint‚ considering that even a typical uncontested litigated divorce can cost into the tens of thousands of dollars‚ it’s not surprising that mediation is gradually replacing litigation which is undisputably far more expensive‚ destructive to co–parenting relationships and often leads to highly unpredictable results.
Regardless of their economic situation or stature‚ couples who decide to divorce shouldn’t end up financially or emotionally broken from the process – and neither should their children. The futures of you and your family should be decided by you and your spouse. These decisions are far too important to made by anybody else.
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