Mastering Mediation: Resolving Family Disputes Peacefully With Maribeth Blessing
Mastering Mediation: Resolving Family Disputes Peacefully With Maribeth Blessing
July 24, 2024 | Written by Gladiator Law Marketing
Maribeth Blessing is an Attorney and the Founder of Law Offices of Maribeth Blessing, LLC. She transitioned from an elementary school teacher to a seasoned family law attorney. Maribeth is an active participant in the legal community with memberships in organizations like the American Bar Association and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Recognized for her expertise, Maribeth has received several awards and has been featured in renowned publications. She extends her legal prowess to offer mediation and arbitration services and is an advocate for alternative dispute resolution methods.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
[2:22] Maribeth Blessing’s unconventional path from teaching to practicing law
[4:07] How mediation and teaching first grade influenced Maribeth’s legal career
[5:37] The focus areas of Law Offices of Maribeth Blessing, LLC and Maribeth’s approach to alternative dispute resolution
[6:53] What makes a litigator great and the power of quiet authority
[8:41] The importance of children and families in Maribeth’s choice to practice family law
[14:59] Common misconceptions about getting justice in family law courtrooms
[21:19] Benefits of out-of-court resolutions in family disputes
[25:21] How Maribeth handles emotionally challenging family law cases
[29:56] How setting up her own practice in 1999 was a successful move for Maribeth
In this episode…
Handling family disputes can be incredibly challenging, especially because emotions usually run high. How can families find peaceful resolutions without the stress and expense of courtroom battles?
According to Maribeth Blessing, a seasoned family law attorney and mediation expert, mediation and collaborative law are the keys to resolving conflicts amicably. She highlights the transformative power of allowing parties to communicate openly and work together towards mutual agreements. By focusing on the interests and needs of all involved, especially the children, these methods help preserve relationships and reduce emotional stress. Maribeth’s approach not only saves time and money but also fosters a more cooperative and respectful post-divorce family dynamic.
In this episode of 15 Minutes, host Chad Franzen sits down with Maribeth Blessing, Attorney and the Founder of Law Offices of Maribeth Blessing, LLC, to discuss mastering the art of mediation in family law. She shares the benefits of mediation and collaborative law, insights on handling emotionally charged cases, and strategies for maintaining balance while running a successful law practice.
“Litigation is hard on the attorney; you have to be a very, very staunch advocate for your client.”
“The better thing is to do the reality check of what’s really going to happen in court.”
“The lawyers that work together to help that family reconstruct, that’s the important lawyer that you want on your side.”
“If they get to court, they’re going to get justice. Judges feel that if they leave the courtroom and nobody’s happy, they’ve done a good job.”
“I am 76 years old and have no intention of ever retiring.”
Action Steps:
Explore alternative dispute resolution methods before heading to court: Resolving family disputes outside of a courtroom is more cost-effective and has the potential for more amicable outcomes.
Establish a balanced approach between being an advocate and a mediator: Effective practitioners can harness the strategic insights from litigation to facilitate better mediation outcomes, offering a more empathetic and empowering legal service.
Embrace ongoing education in your field to stay at the forefront of best practices: Continuous learning, such as keeping abreast of new mediation techniques, can enrich your professional arsenal.
Prioritize communication and teamwork for a successful law practice: Strengthening collegial relationships among legal practitioners can lead to more efficient and favorable resolutions for clients.
Leverage your unique background to enhance your career: Drawing from diverse experiences can provide unique insights and approaches within any professional context.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential.
To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition.
To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com or schedule a free marketing consultation. You can also send an email to ad**@gl*******************.com.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:01
You’re listening to 15 Minutes where we feature community leaders sharing what the rest of us should know but likely don’t.
Chad Franzen 0:12
Hi. Chad Franzen here one of the hosts of Share Your Voice, where we talk with top notch law firms and lawyers about what it takes to grow a successful law practice. This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, delivering tailor made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential to have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI your firm needs to have a better website and better content. Gladiator Law Marketing uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and decades of experience to outperform the competition to learn more. Go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com, where you can schedule a free marketing consultation. My guest today is Maribeth Blessing, Owner Attorney at the Law Offices of Maribeth Blessing, with a concentration in family law, her firm also handles wills, various alternative dispute resolution out of court processes such as arbitration mediation and collaborative law. Maribeth is deeply involved in the legal community, holding memberships in prestigious organizations like the Fellows of the American Bar Association, the International Academy of Collaborative Practitioners, and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. She has been recognized with accolades like the 2007 Professional of the Year Award in Alternative Dispute Resolution from Strathmore’s Who’s Who and being featured in Super Lawyers Magazine and Philadelphia Magazine multiple times. Maribeth extends her expertise beyond the law practice offering mediation and arbitration services through Maribeth Blessing Mediation and Arbitration LLC. Her commitment to her field is evident through her roles as a speaker, author and presenter and course planner for various legal and mediation education programs. She’s also dedicated to community service, serving as an active child advocate for MCAP, and holding positions such as past president of The Doris Jonas Freed American Inn of Court. Maribeth’s contributions to legal profession and her community make her a highly respected figure in her field. Hey, Maribeth, thanks so much for joining today. How are you?
Maribeth Blessing 2:12
I’m very well. How are you?
Chad Franzen 2:15
Great. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hey, tell me, when and how did you know you first wanted to become an attorney?
Maribeth Blessing 2:22
Oh, I didn’t actually know, but when I was a young woman in my 20s, my father would say to me, you ought to be a lawyer. You like to debate too much. And that must have stuck with me, because I went on to become an elementary school teacher, and I did that for nine years, and then found myself in circumstances where I needed a career that provided more money because I was working primarily in private schools. So I went on to work for the court system, and then my last three years of the eight years, I spent as a hearing officer in domestic relations for child support, I went to law school, so I was 41 when I finally started my career as a lawyer.
Chad Franzen 3:06
What was it? I guess you didn’t know anything differently. But was it starting a new career, kind of at that middle, sort of a middle aged type period? Was that challenging, difficult, or something that just was just the next step?
Maribeth Blessing 3:22
No, it. It was very challenging, because I had two teenage children at home, and I had to figure out how I could still be a mom. And I designated that Sundays I would not study. I can’t tell you how I had to stick that in anywhere I possibly could. So it was a very long, arduous path, but it’s one that I look back on and cherish, because I’m doing what I love, and I didn’t know this is what I would love the most, and I am 76 years old and have no intention of ever retiring.
Chad Franzen 3:53
Oh, wow, that is awesome. Congratulations. So how did you, can you take me through kind of your journey into the legal industry? Then you went to, you said you went to you said you went to law school, and then where did you kind of go from there?
Maribeth Blessing 4:07
I worked at two law firms. The first one was one of the most famous lawyers on the East Coast, Lynn gold, beckon and Associates, and I worked there for four years, under her tutelage and really learned how to be a really great mitigator. Then I found that my heart was really in dispute resolution, which I probably started when I was teaching first grade, and we started one of the first glass of programs for peer mediation in that school, because it was in Alaska, and it was a very, very Pioneer School in new areas of teaching. So then I worked with Leslee Tabas, and I was executive director of a new business that we formed called the Resolution Dispute Center, and I also was her. Me that I went to court as well as did that, and she did all the arbitration, and I did all the mediation.
Chad Franzen 5:08
What, what kind of drew you to?
Maribeth Blessing 5:10
Then I opened, I’m sorry, I opened my own firm. And really said to me, you’re working 16 hours a day for somebody else. Why don’t you work for yourself? And I said, I’m afraid I won’t eat. And he said, I’ll need to go. And so thanks to him, I’ve been I have my own firm since 1999.
Chad Franzen 5:30
I kind of discussed it in your intro, in your intro, but tell me kind of the main things that your firm focuses on.
Maribeth Blessing 5:37
My firm focuses on alternative dispute resolution. I have two partners that are really great litigators as well. My days of litigation ended with covid. I said to myself, I’m not going into a courtroom with a lot of people again. And I do it for my older clients, whenever something comes up that has to be litigated, or even new clients, if it’s something I can do by Zoom, but I try not to go into courtrooms anymore. My my associate, my partners are all, as well as myself, trained in collaborative law. We’re all trained as mediators. We also, by the way, there’s my little mascot behind me. She’s a choir mediator, let me tell you. And so we also do. We’re part of Amicable Divorce Network, which is a new network that’s starting to spread across Pennsylvania. I’m one of the founders of our group here, and I also do arbitration on parent coordination, which are all out of court processes.
Chad Franzen 6:43
You mentioned that you kind of learned to become a great litigator. What? What do you think made you successful? Or, or, what are some, some mistakes in general, of a great litigator?
Maribeth Blessing 6:53
With great litigators, First of all, for me, when I put my head on my pill and I think of how many people I give out of court that’s a successful lawyer. Litigation is hard on the attorney, because you have to be very, very staunch advocate for your client. And Collaborative Law, it’s more like the two attorneys work together. We’re colleagues, we’re not we’re not adversaries. And sometimes people perform for their clients, and that’s not a good thing. The better thing is to do the reality check of what’s really going to happen in court and what’s going to happen when you have two parents arguing over custody. Is the kids are going to be isolated. They’re going to be affected. It’s a trickle down effect for all the money they’re going to spend in litigation, which is six figures before you can even guess, and it polarizes parents. So to be a good litigator, that what you have to do, and what I learned to do, is to be thorough, to be absolutely prepared. I like to think of my my reputation as a great litigator was the fact that I didn’t perform for my clients. I came out with what I call quiet power. I was the civil lawyer. I was the courteous lawyer, and then it was very easy when they went into their AGS, Farida asked the judge your honor pools, may I speak without interruption? I gave my opposing counsel that courtesy, I’d like to say, and you wouldn’t believe how much power that gives you as a litigator, but if you’re not prepared and you don’t know your cases, and you’re not willing to even try and settle that case on the courthouse steps, you’re not a good litigator.
Chad Franzen 8:34
Yeah, what kind of drew you into practicing family law then?
Maribeth Blessing 8:41
Kids. Because it was another way for me to work for children. That’s the reason I worked for domestic relations and became a child support adjudicator. My first job there was a bench warrant investigator for parents who weren’t paying their child support. That was like being on the road. It was really kind of fun and but kind of scary too, because they get arrested like any other criminal and so but what I really, really love about family law is the opportunity to help a family get through a very, very difficult process and stay connected and put co-parents on the other side, and to know that Those children are going to be well loved in both households.
Chad Franzen 9:24
You also do, as you mentioned, alternative dispute resolution. You know, you you did that when you were a first grade teacher. How did you kind of get involved with that? Then, you know, when you were in the legal industry?
Maribeth Blessing 9:37
I always wanted to do mediation. I took my mediation training at the public very two of the four teachers were really well known in the mediation field, which was just coming out from Pennsylvania in the 90s, and they’d been doing it since the 70s, and it was only the facilitative process, but later, I also trained in a transformative process. Process, which I absolutely love, and I’ve just always wanted to be there to help people navigate their way through the courts and to give them the ability to be empowered and recognized and have self direction. So when they fashion their own agreements, there is nothing like it how they own it, and collaborative law does it as well, but it’s a process. If somebody doesn’t feel they they can be with a neutral mediator and feel like they’re going to be intimidated, then collaborative is the way to go, because it’s it’s a team. It’s two lawyers who are working together. I can talk to opposing counsel’s client as well as my own. We empower our parties to have the discussions, to look at interest, not I want so you want the house. Why do you want the house? Is it feasible for you to have a house? The house? Is there a way to get it? What does your spouse want? What do you why do you think they want it? And center them on, really concentrate on listening to one another. And once we’ve got those fears down, we’ve addressed them and the interest, then we’re at a point where we could start looking at options. And no options too silly to put up there and consider. So once they generate as many options as they can, with the help of Council and their team, which is usually a financial specialist who’s going to help gather all of their documents, so we don’t have to fight for discovery like we do as a litigator, and never get in any way. We get it all. Everybody has it at one time, and the other is a divorce coach, or what we call a communication specialist. They’re meeting with the parties before it ever begins and getting, giving the team a kind of a heads up on what’s going to work with this couple, and what their needs are and what their issues are, and how they just they can resolve disputes together, and it’s adaptable to any most difficult case of boy. I had had them. I never even knew what private equity was. Most judges don’t. I had one case with a lot of private equity, multi millions of dollars, to the simplest case where somebody might have a little bit of a mental health issue going on, somebody might have an addiction. Those are really good cases for collaborative because the people come up with their own decisions. I find that the independent spouse is more generous and like the court might do, and it’s really a a solution that works for the entire family. And we have a child specialist, we want to tap into that. People think, oh, that sounds real expensive, but the difference is, your lawyers aren’t doing it all as a lawyer, when somebody comes to me for litigation, but I have to do it all. I’m the counselor. I have to figure out what their their financials are and and come up with an inventory. I have to hire an expert for a business valuation, sometimes a forensic accountant, to delve into what the income is. And I have to do it all. So they’re paying me my hourly rate. When you have a professional that’s half your hourly rate and both parties go to it, it’s cost saving.
Chad Franzen 13:11
How do you kind of balance your legal practice then with, you know, all the mediation and arbitration services?
Maribeth Blessing 13:20
Right now I’m telling clients, as soon as they come in, I’m your settler. If I can’t get it settled, one of my my partners, and they meet one when at my initial consult, will be your litigator. And so far, rarely does it get that far to one of them, or you can choose another lead to get litigator, but they that’s how I kind of balance it. So I know what I’m doing, but they are taking on I had a reputation for being the custody guru. Don’t ask me why, because I settled most of my custody cases, but litigated a few for eight days, no fun. So I I’d like to think that they my, my partners are taking over that role doing a lot of the custody litigation, but we really try to nip that in the bud and to really convince people that even that piece is better done in mediation. As a matter of fact, I have been on the mediation panel for our court orientation program in Montgomery County since it started in 1999 and what we do is we’re a group of mediators that have been court vetted, and they send the parties to us first before they ever step in a courtroom. We volunteer our services for a nominal fee, and a lot of those cases settle at this level, because it’s the first time they talk to each other, they’ll come in and say, Oh, we’re going to court. And then at the end of the mediation, they’ve resolved their whole issues.
Chad Franzen 14:49
Does your experience, does your experience as a litigator help you as a mediator? Do those two things kind of go hand in hand, or they do help you?
Maribeth Blessing 14:59
Yes, and. And more so my experience as a mediator helps me as a litigator, because I am always trying to mediate with the pros and counsel without them even knowing what’s happening. So I always try to draw them back into, let’s talk about what they really need. Let’s let’s do this. You know, can we look at a way that they both get what they want, or they both at least get what they need and what that child might need. And so I find that most of my litigation cases that even now, potentially in litigation, I am settling just having one with another gal of like mind that I’m part of with a group called lawyers with heart. And we are five independent women that know we work really well together and party. You know, people don’t understand that if your lawyers hate each other, you’re going to be paying a lot of money because they’re not going to get anything done for you. It’s the lawyers that work together to help that, that family reconstruct, that’s, that’s the important lawyer that you want on your side.
Chad Franzen 16:00
Is there a case, you know, whether, whether it was in the in the courtroom, or that you’ve helped settle that’s been particularly memorable, you know, like, well, I’m pretty proud of that one. I’m sure you’re proud of all of them. But is there one that, like, comes to top of mind?
Maribeth Blessing 16:13
I have one that I’m very proud of, and it was a case that came to me twice, and I thought, oh my god, I I don’t know if I can handle this woman, because she’s so over the top, and I hate him. You know, that whole nine yards, and they decided she came to me the second time to say, Oh my God, my husband’s siblings are looking to bring legal action against him, saying he’s been embezzling from the company. And I looked at her, and I said, if you don’t get yourself into Collaborative Law, you’re going to be dragged into that litigation with him. So we went collaborative, and I was really worried that she wasn’t going to be a real good candidate, because she so hated her husband. And it ended up that we worked through it in less than six months, we had an agreement. At one point, I said, tapper, and I, when I tap her, she knew that we were going to go out for a talk to get her revamped, up and in. And they settled their parenting, they settled their support, and they settled all the equitable distribution and protected her from any lawsuits that might come down with the company. But at one point she said, I can’t go back in there. I can’t go back in there. And I said, Well, why? And she said, I can’t stand sitting across from him and looking at him. I said, I wish you would have told me that two two sessions ago. So I said, Wait a minute. So I brought everybody outside, and I said, Well, I’m going to let husband go sit down first. We’re going to kind of change seats and shake this up a bit, and then I let her go in, and she sat next to him because she didn’t have to look at him if she was next to him. And from that on, it was a whole different climate, and it was a fun case, because our financial person had to go out to their very expensive home. And husband had a quite a collection of cars. And there was a he went out to bring a car valuer, somebody who valued the cars with him. And then, before he got there, the most expensive car had a fire. Oh, you know what I mean was kind of on purpose. Insurance was probably worth more than the fire, but husband was quite a conniver that case. Couple years down the road, went into litigation, and as a collaborative lawyer, I can’t stay on the case, so I got another litigator to handle it, and I got subpoenaed to the trial, and so did the other collaborative lawyer, which, of course, their fee agreement says we will never we can’t testify. We can’t be your attorney. And what was ironic in that case is we never did testify. We explained to the judge that we couldn’t and I and was it was the husband being sued by the siblings. And so they had like three lawyers there that were representing the siblings in this and this company. And we got talking, and I started finding myself. I was mediating between the lawyer that was representing white for me and the company. And then the judge came out, and he asked where we were, and they said, Well, Maribeth’s got this can we continue mediating? And the judge got me into the conference room, and we all sat around and mediated the case and came to a settlement.
Chad Franzen 19:35
Nice, very nice. Wow. Hey. Are there any Have you found that there are any common misconceptions when it comes to family law?
Maribeth Blessing 19:45
Yes, the very big misconception isn’t you’ve got a good go to court, you’re going to get justice. No, I can remember when Judge del Ritchie was our president judge the lawyers were petrified of him, and. Because he would shoot you down quicker than anything you thought. You did not interrupt this judge, but he always came in really early. He read every single case. He knew them every which way to Sunday, and he would tell both parties. He said, I’m probably looking at two good parents here, and I’m wondering what you’re doing here, because I’m somebody in a black robe that doesn’t know either one of you, and you’re here to to make yourself look good and make the other person look bad. And then you’re going to ask me to figure out who’s telling the treatment. You lying, and I’m going to have to talk to your child in chambers, which is traumatic for your child. He said, Listen, do yourself a favor. Go stop a Mack truck driver and ask him what to do with the rest of your life. Very powerful. Very, very powerful. So yes, the misnomer is, if they get to court, they’re going to get your justice. Judges feel that if they leave the courtroom and nobody’s happy, they’ve done a good job, the mediators feel they leave both feeling they were heard and both getting something of what they needed. We’ve done a good job. Big difference in attitude.
Chad Franzen 21:10
So given that, can you speak to kind of the benefits of out of court processes to resolve aspects of family disputes.
Maribeth Blessing 21:19
The out of court process, they’re going to get you there quicker, less money than litigation. It’s going to be a global settlement, which is not possible in court in montgomery county, we have three tracks. Support goes this direction. Then you have parenting, or custody. I like to call it parenting, but it’s custody is this one. And our long back continuum, you have lots of different hearings, and then maybe a couple years down the road, you’re into equitable distribution, because if you’re there in the court system, that means you’re not able to settle it yourselves, even through your attorneys, who always are looking to settle. And so none of them talk to each other. And then at the end, at the each continuum where you might have three hearings. Well, just take equitable distribution. First, you’re going to see a conciliator for a case management phone conference. That’s when you start the process. Then you’re going to have a half a day conference by a new to try and settle the matter. And then you’re going to have an in in court trial with that conciliator who’s going to do a recommendation, and you’ve got 20 days to appeal it to go before a judge. Well, now you’ve appealed it before a judge, so your first meeting with the judge is what’s called a short list, and that’s sometimes done by zoom, sometimes in house, judges by the try and feel it out and settle it then it that doesn’t settle you’ve got to however many days you want for trial. That’s one beauty of montgomery county, bucks, I can get a day now, and that eight day trial that I told you I had in Bucks was over two years. And then imagine a parenting issue not being settled for two years by a judge. That’s the way the court system works. Aren’t those the only one? If I’m in Philadelphia, if I get a half an hour, I’m lucky, because they have so many pro se litigants in and out. It’s the judges don’t have the time. So that’s one of the huge difference, why somebody should think about choosing alternative dispute resolution, but they need to be very careful in choosing who they are going to go to. But a lot of people hang their hats out as mediators. You don’t they’re not a credentialed profession at this point, so you’ve got to make sure your mediators got the education and the training and the reputation with the court, as well as with I get mediation sent to me all the time from the court. Collaborative Law, same thing. A lot of lawyers say, Oh, I do collaborative. I meet in four way meetings that is not collaborative law. Collaborative is the team. It’s signing a non participant, a participation agreement that says we will not go to court, and if we do, we lose our team. So that keeps them in the process. It says we will not fight over discovery. We will give it willingly. If they don’t, they lose the team. Now they can go to court with a whole new set of professionals that are going to be 10 times the the amount they’ll pay to us to get it finished. And we’re just finishing up two cases that I knew my client would not have survived, court hearings, emotionally, financially. In one case, my my girls have a social supporting disability, and the team has been amazing. The parties actually can’t meet in a four way meeting or six way meeting, so we’re doing all the work and taking it back to them. And husband’s very concerned about the divorce and how it’s going to affect life. Well, he’s been very amicable. And the other case, it started out with somebody being 302, That person will go down a great disadvantage in the courtroom and not as a professional.
Chad Franzen 25:06
Oh, wow. How do you how do you kind of handle emotionally challenging I’m you’re very well versed in doing it by now, but how do you kind of handle emotionally challenging cases in family law, where I’m sure there’s a lot of them.
Maribeth Blessing 25:21
There is a lot of them, especially when I get the court ordered custody. Uh, usually somebody has a huge problem there. And I’ve also had the mediation that even Bill Eddy, who writes the book called BIFF, you know, how to, how to what communicate as parents, he had even get a handle on this, because one of the parties is so over the top, emotionally and self righteous and narcissistic, and add all those lovely things to it, that it’s impossible this, this poor couple, and it’s the same sex couple, will never be able to see eye to eye on that case, and some of them, you just do the best you can to help, try and put band aids on wherever you can, in terms of emotions, that’s transformative mediation. I sit in the middle of them. If they’re uncomfortable, they’ll let me know. I’m learning a lot from watching their interaction. And sometimes they go have to go backwards, make sure we can go forwards. So as soon as I see it opening, to either raise up what somebody says for recognition purpose or empower the one who doesn’t seem to be able to get a word in edgewise to be able to do that. Once they start, they pass through that dark period and they come out the other side. They’re all work, you know? They’re like, hey, we can do this. We can get down to it. So I try and prepare them for it to an orientation telling I don’t ever set groundwork. I don’t say you can’t say this, you can’t do this. And if somebody calls somebody a bad name, I’m going to reflect that name so they can hear what it sounds like. I’m going to reflect it exactly the way they said it. And then you watch, how many people will say, oh gosh, I didn’t mean to say that I’m sorry. And that I’m sorry is a huge power, powerful thing to piggyback on. So control the emotions, not always. I don’t. I let them I let them rip, sure, and that I come in and do my thing.
Chad Franzen 27:24
You mentioned you started your own firm in 1999 Was that correct? Yes. How did that go for you? I’m sure you know, you’d already had really good experience as an attorney, but then, you know, kind of kicking off your own business. How did that go?
Maribeth Blessing 27:38
Well, I was very lucky all 40 of the clients I had worked on, which some of them were my, my boss’s clients, because I always worked up all of our cases. So all 41, of them came with me, and I made an agreement with my, my then employer, that I would give her 20% of every one of those cases, of everything that I built and collected until that case was done, and I did so for eight years, and then she said, forget it, because I still had one person that was still there. After eight years, very contentious case, I borrowed $10,000 to buy furniture. I moved in with two wonderful gentlemen who asked me to be partner. And I ever wanted to be partnered with anybody, it would have been them, but I’m so glad I said no, because I like being independent, and now I own my building and have been when I moved in here and they say, Oh, Maribeth, this is off the beaten path. You’re never going to have clients. I said, I’ll get my clients because they see my sign. I get my client from my website. I get most of my clients word of mouth, so I’m not worried about it, and I never look back. So we are always in the black. I’ve never had to borrow money to keep my firm at that $10,000 I paid back in three months and been going ever since, you know, very and I take care of my staff. I have a policy here that it’s God first family second, and your work third. So I’m very flexible on hours, and as long as you get your work done and you need to take a kid to the donuts, you go do that. And I find that quietly, a lot of them are here till six or seven at night, when the work hasn’t finished during a day, and we all answer all of our phone calls and all of our emails before we go home, no client has gone a day without being able to touch base with their lawyer.
Chad Franzen 29:44
Sounds good. Sounds very good. Hey, I have one, one more question for you, should people find out more about your law firm?
Maribeth Blessing 29:56
What would you like to know about my law firm?
Chad Franzen 29:58
How can people find out more like the website?
Maribeth Blessing 30:01
Sure my website is www.mbfamilylaw.com. You can also find me on www.lawyerswithheart.com which are those five other women, four other women that I talked about. I’m also a member of the Southeastern Collaborative Law Professional Group, and that’s www.gocollaborativepa.com, and I’m an author on Amazon, so you can find some of the things I’ve written on on Amazon. My number is 215-663-9016, and the first person you’ll probably meet is Brenda, who is my my girlfriend in parallel, who is amazing. And you also might find me picking up the phone, because we all answer the phone so it does, we don’t lose calls. We might find Liane or Gwen, my partner’s picking up the phone, and we do a 10 minute free consult, which usually ends up being a little bit longer to just kind of evaluate the case. And most of those people who call us and experience that come in for a very conservative two hour consult, up to two hours for $250 so if you saw what our you know, give me what our hourly rate was, that it’s quite about a bargain, 250 for two hours. And in that two hours, we’re going to talk about, first we’re going to talk about processes and what your expectation is. And then we’re going to give you an idea of what happens in the court and what the court process is or what the law is. And then we’re going to look at your particular interest, and you’re going to have to do some work before you come because the more information you can bring to us, the more we can help you. And nine times out of 10, I have enough information that I give the person with me a settlement proposal to take to their spouse, and if they take it to their spouse and they make have an agreement, I will do that case for a flat fee of $4,000 and that’s about $7,000 worth of my time.
Chad Franzen 32:15
Okay, sounds good. Hey. Last question for you. You mentioned you were an author on Amazon. If you could point somebody to one thing that you have, that you have there, can you tell me what it would be and maybe what the takeaway would be?
Maribeth Blessing 32:32
I go thoroughly into dispute resolution on some of them. By the way, you can see podcasts. You can get them on my website, as well as links to the books that I was returning amazon.com, and so I will promote, always promote, out of court processes. So you can learn a lot from that, and you can learn a proper route from my website. Very, very thorough in all those processes.
Chad Franzen 33:02
Okay, sounds good. Hey, Maribeth, it’s been great to talk to you today. I really appreciate your time and all of your insights and your thoughts. Thank you so much.
Maribeth Blessing 33:10
Thank you. I will continue to preserve and protect families here. That’s what we do.
Chad Franzen 33:15
I can tell. Thank you very much. Maribeth, So long everybody.
Outro 33:20
Thanks for listening to 15 Minutes. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you next time bye.
Maribeth Blessing is an Attorney and the Founder of Law Offices of Maribeth Blessing, LLC. She transitioned from an elementary school teacher to a seasoned family law attorney. Maribeth is an active participant in the legal community with memberships in organizations like the American Bar Association and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. Recognized for her expertise, Maribeth has received several awards and has been featured in renowned publications. She extends her legal prowess to offer mediation and arbitration services and is an advocate for alternative dispute resolution methods.
