Consensual Special Magistrate and Confidential Divorces

If you have a desire to keep your divorce, and your financial disclosures, confidential, your attorney may recommend the use of a Consensual Special Magistrate (CSM). (This is a form of alternative dispute resolution. For more information on ADR, please click here.)

In Minnesota, a Consensual Special Magistrate is a specially trained, neutral third party who acts as a judge. While you and/or your spouse will be responsible for fees associated with hiring a CSM, there are substantial benefits including keeping your case off the public record and the ability to schedule the progress of your case outside the district court calendar, thus enabling you to resolve your issue more quickly than through the traditional court process.

When you hire a Consensual Special Magistrate, you and your attorney will present your case before the CSM in the same manner as you would present the case before a typical courtroom judge. The process is binding, but you do have the right to an appeal in the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

For more information on divorcing through a Consensual Special Magistrate, please contact the Minnesota divorce attorneys at Banas Family Law now.