Disclaimer: This article does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about your individual situation it is best to seek the advice of an experienced legal professional
When you hire lawyers or a divorce mediation firm, confidentiality is a part of the agreement between you and the professionals handling your divorce. If you decide to hire lawyers and go to court, however, this changes. In an adversarial divorce your privacy will be compromised as the divorce becomes public record.
Unlike hiring separate attorneys, which can result in litigation, divorce mediation is a confidential process from start to finish. Confidentiality is important to most people, but it becomes particularly important in a high profile divorce. High profile divorces are also often high net worth divorces.
A high net-worth divorce is a divorce in which the marital assets are worth more than 1M. High net worth divorces often include multiple real estate properties, overseas assets, employee benefits, life insurance, business assets, trust assets, and collector’s items. These divorces require a high level of attention to detail and a comprehensive approach to property division.
With so much at stake, high asset, high profile divorcing couples often prefer to keep their divorce private. While most people would prefer to keep their personal lives private, with high net worth divorces and high profile divorces, there are even more urgent reasons for doing this. The following are a few reasons why many high profile and high net worth people may prefer to keep their divorce private:
Avoiding Media Attention and Keeping Your Personal Life Out of the Public Eye
If you are a high-profile couple or you are prominent in the business world, the last thing you want is to go to court and have the media making presumptions or reporting on your divorce. In an adversarial divorce, your personal details, private collections, close relatives and children’s lives can
be scrutinized by the public through media outlets or social media questions.
Attention on your private property including real estate, family property, private collections etc. can create security concerns and strip away privacy at a residential home or retreat. Children and relatives’ wellbeing can be negatively affected by these privacy intrusions.
Protecting Your Business or Brand
If you have a business or a personal brand, a public divorce could affect the value of these assets. For example, the divorce of Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott had an influence on projections for Amazon share prices. Equally, the value of a personal brand, professional goodwill or public image could be damaged by disputes with your spouse in a public forum. Damage to your reputation could also affect your business relationships and your standing within an organization. These effects on your business or reputation could reduce the overall value of the assets to be divided in the divorce.
Protect Proprietary or Sensitive Information
One unfortunate effect of a public divorce is that proprietary or sensitive information about creative work, intellectual property or trade secrets could be speculated or often revealed. This could open a business, creative project or scientific venture up to scrutiny or imitation. If the marital assets include valuable intellectual property or a delicate creative project, it’s much better to have a discreet divorce.
Keep the Details of a Prenup or Postnup Private
A prenup or postnup can become public record in any divorce that takes place in a courtroom (unless you had a confidentiality agreement in place incorporating the marital or pre-marital agreement). Prenups and postnups often reveal details of inherited property and the respective wealth of both parties. Public attention invites unnecessary scrutiny into the choices individuals have made by signing a prenup or postnup. Without knowing the full story, people can be quick to make judgements. If you don’t go to court and choose a non-adversarial process like divorce mediation, then your prenup or postnup can remain private.
Divorce Mediation: A Confidential and Respectful Process
If you don’t want your private relationships to be scrutinized in public there is a confidential and respectful way to avoid this outcome. Divorce mediation with a professional mediation firm is a completely confidential, non-adversarial process in which your privacy can be kept intact and you can embark on a peaceful divorce, allowing time for satisfactory negotiations and a thorough analysis of community property. When you choose a private divorce process like divorce mediation, you do not have to feel pressured by public scrutiny and your divorce negotiations are not affected by biased media reporting on your situation.
In divorce mediation, you and your divorcing spouse are the core divorce team, while the mediator facilitates and empowers your divorce with optimized division of assets and expertise. At Divorce Options San Diego, our mediators are financial legal experts, and we can incorporate greater protection for your privacy into your divorce mediation, such as a confidentiality agreement if appropriate. Our divorce mediation approach is a streamlined process, with expertise which can reduce conflict and visibility when appraising the value of real estate, private collections or a business.
Instead of public hearings, mediations are conducted in private at the discretion and flexibility of both parties’ schedule. Our mediation firm can mediate with you both separately utilizing a the process can be completely remote and personal. All our remote mediations are conducted using our secure, private sever. Please contact our high-level West Coast divorce mediators today to learn more about our confidential divorce mediation services.
