I am concerned that with Divorce Mediation that my Spouse and the Mediator will try and have me work on the Marriage to avoid getting a divorce.

 This is one that sometimes people think that mediation is couples’ therapy, but the divorce mediator’s job is to work through the issues in a divorce, to try and have you reach a fair and reasonable resolution and a reasonable way to raise your children.  It is not to work on your marriage; that is something that you can go to couples counseling for but it is not what divorce mediation is about.

How to make determination analyzing assets?                       

There are some negatives with mediation.  If there is cash businesses or unknown values there is a certain amount of good faith but more importantly in a traditional divorce litigation you can hire outside experts including real estate and business appraisals, tax attorneys and things of that nature.  In mediation getting those appraisals done during the mediation would also be very valuable and sometimes you can save a lot of money by agreeing on one appraiser rather than each party hiring their “competing experts”.

Is Mediation better to resolve issues regarding my children?

Yes.  If you can show cooperative behavior rather than adversarial behavior and be able to not put your children in the middle of things; which if you have to litigate it, it is a no-win situation.  In mediation you can end up finding compromises that will be better overall for your children then a judge hearing at a trial or an argument without fully knowing your family.  One of the advantages is, again, it is a voluntary process so if you do not end up finding an agreement that you think is fair and reasonable you can always go to court, but it would be as a last resort; particularly regarding children.