Marriage means something different to every couple. While you may have chosen to marry your spouse for love or security, your marriage certificate is a legal contract between you, your spouse and the state. As such, to dissolve your union, you must divide marital property and obtain a court order.

Gone are the days when couples had little choice but to engage in a protracted legal battle. Nowadays, a growing number of divorcing spouses choose alternate dispute resolution, such as mediation, to wrap up their marriages. While there are many advantages to mediating a divorce, sometimes, it simply does not work. Here are three signs it may be time to walk away from your divorce mediation:

1. Your partner is trying to devastate you

Divorce mediation is gaining popularity for a few important reasons. While you may appreciate that mediation is often less expensive than a protracted court battle, you are also likely to enjoy the reduced stress that tends to accompany alternate dispute resolution.

As you may suspect, though, some divorce mediations are more successful than others. While working with counsel who understands how to mediate a high-asset divorce is critical, you also need to prepare yourself for the mediation process. Here are four tips for making your divorce mediation a success:

1. Decide what really matters

Let us say that you and your spouse have amassed significant assets during the years of your marriage. Now your marriage is coming to an end and you face a high-net-worth divorce.

You dread the idea of an expensive, lengthy and possibly acrimonious court process. Consider mediation, an alternative to litigation that comes with benefits and puts you in control of your divorce.

A popular option

If you are the soon-to-be-ex-spouse of a military member, you may wonder how property division will affect you.

Although property division in a divorce must follow Texas law, the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act also comes into play on your behalf.

The USFSPA explained

Divorce is not an easy process. However, there are certain divorce tools that can help the process, such as mediation.

Before determining if divorce mediation is right in a situation, it is important to understand what the process entails. There are a few key facts to know.

What it is