Today we’d like to introduce you to Belinda Rachman.
Belinda, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I am the child of a nasty divorce. I became a special-education teacher and got my Masters in working with severely emotionally disturbed children. At the end of the year, my principal asked me who I worked for and I said the students and their parents. He told me, “Wrong Answer. You work for Vista Unified School District and we didn’t hire you to be a child advocate. You won’t be getting tenure next year.” Yes, I have always been a child advocate, so I went to law school!
When I graduated and passed the bar on my first try, I realized that my background working with severely emotionally disturbed children could really help me working with couples getting divorced. I was really shocked at how many divorce lawyers were manipulating their emotionally vulnerable clients by encouraging them to fight. That helps the lawyer make more money but it rarely helped the client and especially hurt the children when the parents were at each other’s throats. After eight years of being a litigator, I walked away from a successful law practice and I’ve been doing nothing but peaceful divorce mediation for the last 13 years.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I am the only child of people who can afford me so my road has always been smooth. I have definitely been on a meandering path. My undergraduate degree is in film and TV production and the only reason I went to graduate school in special education is because I wanted to do documentaries on the treatment of patients in mental hospitals. I had been a volunteer at Trenton State Psychiatric Hospital and was horrified at what was going on behind closed doors. But by the time I graduated from film school President Reagan was at war With the National Endowment for the Arts so there would be no funding for the documentary I had wanted to make so I started teaching.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Fair Divorce In A Day Mediation – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
If you go to Yelp.com and search for Divorce Lawyer in Carlsbad, there is no other divorce attorney with anywhere near my 23 Five Star reviews. There is a group of 6 lawyers who practice 3 different legal areas who have a total of 27 5 star reviews, which is about 4.5 stars each! By the time most people are finished with their divorce, they have figured out that their lawyer is not their friend and that they’ve been taken for a ride which only makes the lawyer rich and the client poorer.
Not only do they hate their own lawyer (and would never give them a 5 Star review) they want to kill their ex’s lawyer. Because my clients are so happy with my peaceful divorce mediation process, they tell their friends and therapists, who then refer me their divorcing patients. Most of my clients come to me via word of mouth. I don’t work with everyone who comes to me. Mediation is not for everybody. I won’t work with people who are hiding assets or lying about income. I don’t want to be involved in the situation where one side is being cheated by the other. I won’t work with couples who aren’t honest or who don’t trust that their spouses being honest. Somebody is going to get screwed in a scenario where one person is honest and the other one is not. I don’t get involved In situations like that.
It has been my joy in life to keep people out of court and help them protect their co-parenting relationship while saving them a ton of money. My flat fee of $5000 is what most divorce attorneys charge as a retainer. That is just the first check their clients write! The average divorce in California when each side has their own attorney costs, on average, $20,000 each. So obviously a couple is going to save a lot of money if they can just deal with each other honestly in mediation.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am going to be 63 in a few months. I have a lease in my office until I’m 65. At that point, I need to evaluate what I want to do with the rest of my life. I love what I do and I can’t imagine being retired, but I have no idea what the future will hold. All I know right now is that due to the new GOP tax plan, 2018 will be the last year that spousal support will be tax deductible to the payor. In the future, the person in the higher tax bracket will be paying the taxes on the money they must pay in spousal support. But the GOP had to pay for tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires so they passed the tax burden on to the rest of us. Thanks, President Trump!
Pricing:
- $5,000 total fee
- $2,500 to start
- $2,500 once you have a signed agreement
Contact Info:
- Address: 2945 Harding, #210 Carlsbad, CA 92008
- Website: www.divorce-inaday.com
- Phone: 760-720-9324
- Email: belindaesq@hotmail.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Fair-Divorce-In-A-Day-Mediation-59323952621/?=ref=bookmarks
- Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/fair-divorce-in-a-day-mediation-carlsbad?osq=Divorce+Mediation
Image Credit:
Eliot
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
