Buyer’s Remorse

I was talking with some family law attorneys the other day. They were discussing mediations. The kind where everyone sits around in a room for nine hours to hash out a settlement. They mentioned buyer’s remorse.

In about 15% of their cases, the day after these mediations, their clients call and say they have changed their minds. They have second thoughts about those settlement agreements. After a good night’s sleep, those agreements don’t look as reasonable as they did the day before when they were tired and stressed.

Unfortunately, the mediation agreement they signed is irrevocable.

Had these clients chosen to use the collaborative divorce process, they would not have had to make these agreements after nine hours of grueling negotiations. In collaborative divorce cases, the clients get as long as they want to process, think about, get advice and mull over their possible settlement options. I have been on dozens of collaborative cases and have heard about many more cases. Never have I seen or heard of buyers remorse in a collaborative case. Certainly 15% sounds like a low rate of buyer’s remorse. But when it is your remorse, it is 100%,