Mediation doesn’t always work. You sit down with your spouse and a mediator, both sides try to negotiate in good faith, and sometimes you just can’t get there. It happens more often than you’d think. When mediation falls apart, your divorce isn’t over. It just takes a different path.
What Happens After Failed Mediation
Your case moves to litigation. That means a judge will make the decisions you and your spouse couldn’t agree on. The shift isn’t instantaneous, though. Your attorney needs to file motions to get your case back on the court calendar for hearings and eventually a trial. Any partial agreements you reached during mediation don’t disappear. If both parties still agree to those terms, they can stand. Maybe you settled on how to divide your retirement accounts, but hit a wall over the house. Only the unresolved issues go before the judge.
Common Issues That Derail Mediation
Some disagreements are harder to bridge than others. Merel Family Law has seen certain patterns emerge over the years:
- Property division fights, especially over business valuations or who gets the family home
- Child custody arrangements when parents can’t agree on schedules or have safety concerns
- Spousal maintenance disputes about how much and for how long
- Who’s responsible for marital debt
- Suspicions about hidden assets or one spouse not being transparent with finances
These sticking points don’t mean mediation was a waste of your time. The process often narrows things down. You’ll understand what the real problems are and where each person stands, which actually helps your attorney prepare for court.
The Litigation Process Begins
Once mediation fails, your case enters discovery if it hasn’t already. Discovery is the formal evidence-gathering phase. Both sides request documents, send written questions called interrogatories, and conduct depositions where people give sworn testimony. Depending on how complicated your finances are or how contentious custody issues have become, discovery can stretch on for months. Your North Shore divorce mediation lawyer switches gears into litigation mode. They’ll gather evidence, prepare witness lists, and build arguments for why the judge should rule in your favor. It’s a different kind of preparation than the mediation required. Pretrial hearings deal with temporary issues. Who stays in the house? How much child support gets paid while everything’s pending? These decisions aren’t final, but they matter because they set the conditions you’ll live under until trial.
What To Expect In Court
Illinois divorce trials follow specific procedures. Each side presents evidence through documents and witness testimony. Your spouse’s attorney gets to cross-examine your witnesses. Your attorney does the same to theirs.
The judge doesn’t just decide based on who argues better. They’re bound by Illinois family law statutes. For property division, courts consider things like how long you’ve been married, what each spouse earns, who contributed what to marital assets, and whether you’ve got kids. When it comes to child custody, the judge focuses entirely on what’s best for your children. They’ll look at each parent’s relationship with the kids, work schedules, stability, and whether you can cooperate with each other. Trials take time. A straightforward case might wrap up in a day or two. But if you’re dealing with business ownership, multiple properties, or serious custody disputes, expect your trial to stretch across several months with multiple court dates scattered throughout.
Costs And Timeline Considerations
Litigation costs more. Attorney fees add up fast when you’re doing extensive discovery, hiring expert witnesses, and appearing in court multiple times. Then there’s court filing fees. Professional valuations. Custody evaluations, if needed. It all piles up. The timeline extends significantly too. Mediation might take a few months from start to finish. Litigated divorces? You’re looking at a year or longer in most cases, sometimes much longer. Cook County courts stay busy, which means waiting weeks or even months between hearings.
Settling During Litigation
Plenty of divorces settle after mediation fails. Sometimes new information surfaces during discovery that changes someone’s perspective. Other times, the reality of actually going to trial motivates both sides to compromise. Nobody wants to put their fate entirely in a judge’s hands if they can avoid it. Your North Shore divorce mediation lawyer can negotiate settlements at any point before the judge issues a final ruling. Some couples reach agreements on the courthouse steps right before the trial starts. It’s never too late to settle if both parties are willing.
Moving Your Case Forward
Failed mediation doesn’t mean your divorce is stuck. It just means you’re taking a different route to resolution. Having an attorney who knows both mediation and litigation inside and out gives you options as your situation evolves. If you’re dealing with unresolved divorce issues after mediation didn’t work out, talk with a family law attorney about what litigation looks like and what you can expect as your case moves through the court system.
