Family & Divorce Mediation Articles
When To Start Mediation (11/10/08)
Nancy Hudgins, Debra Synovec It is in your hands…..you can contain the flames by choosing mediation. You can start mediation anytime, but the best time to start is in the beginning of the divorce process.
Telling The Children (11/03/08)
Nancy Hudgins, Debra Synovec Keep your children from feeling they have to choose! How parents tell their children about the divorce sets the stage for how the parents will co-parent in the future and has a significant impact on whether the children thrive………no matter what you do legally, both of you will continue to be parents.
The Best Interests of the Children (10/27/08)
Nancy Hudgins We encourage parents during divorce to put their children first. This can be hard to do when you are in the middle of conflict. It reminds me of a cartoon in which a guy is standing on a sidewalk and there’s a sign above him with an arrow pointing down to where he’s standing which says: “In the Thick of It.”
Wild Ride! (10/21/08)
Debra Synovec The stock market’s been a wild ride over the past year and unlike rides in amusement parks the ride is NOT amusing! The situation increases anxiety for divorcing couples who are already stressed out and feeling the pressure of financial shortage….and it creates havoc for asset valuations.
No Dukes (10/14/08)
Nancy Hudgins I liken litigation to duking it out. There are three main drawbacks to litigation. (Yes, this blog has a bias.)
Blended Families: Protecting Children The Second Time Around (10/06/08)
Dr. Lynne C. Halem Halem Second marriages are a time for new beginnings, dreams of romance and adventure may abound. Then, too, there are the concerns. Most disturbing of all are the worries that center around entitlements of children.
John Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award Presented to Peter Salem (10/02/08)
Peter Salem, Executive Director of the Association of Family Conciliation Courts, was awarded the John M. Haynes Distinguished Mediator Award by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) at its Eighth Annual Conference, September 24-27, 2008 in Austin, Texas.
Contemplating My Navel and Conflict Resolution (9/14/08)
Laurie Israel At my age, I find my thoughts wandering backwards in time, with long-lost memories bubbling up occasionally. I ponder these memories and cherish them. I parse them for meaning, like dreams in the night remembered suddenly the next day, with a jolt of recognition into their inner meaning.
Sidetaker lets bickering couples submit disputes to court of public opinion (9/10/08)
Diane J. Levin If you seek proof of civilization’s decline, look no further than Sidetaker, a site that lets the public be the judge in spats between quarreling lovers.
Don’t bother to seek nuance or middle ground here; there’s plenty of blame and fingerpointing for couples bickering over everything from toilet flushing habits to illicit affairs.
Sidetaker (slogan: “let the world decide who’s at fault”) of course is in this for the greater good:
…far too many...
(9/09/08)
Keith Seat
Litigation continues in John Cleese’s third divorce – along with payments by Cleese of £900,000 a year – much to his chagrin. Cleese suggested to his wife that it would be easier and fairer to go to mediation, but is facing an aggressive litigator. By contrast, Cleese stated that his first two divorces were “very peaceful” and civilized using mediation.
Telegraph.co.uk (July 24, 2008)
(9/09/08)
Keith Seat
Mediation can be very helpful to preserve relationships among heirs who get into squabbles when dividing estates left by their loved ones. While conflicts can be minimized through proactive steps to make decisions and provide clear final wishes on disposition before death, there are also numerous techniques ranging from blind drawings to drawing cards that can provide processes for allocating assets that seem fair to all involved.
Toledo Blade (July 6, 2008)
Five Characteristics of Successful Family Law Practitioners (9/08/08)
Elizabeth Ferris I have been coaching and working with family lawyers, mediators and collaborative practitioners across North America and Europe for the past 8 years and have observed the characteristics of highly successful practitioners . Here are the five characteristics that I’ve found that work for practitioners who have succeeded in building a family law practice.
Mitigating High Conflict Divorce Disputes (8/24/08)
Brook D. Olsen High levels of parental conflict have consistently been shown to be among the most destructive factors in both intact and divorced families. Currently, we have an epidemic of children caught up in the chaos and turmoil of parental conflict.
Seven Ways to Improve Your Working Relationships (8/24/08)
Victoria Pynchon Thanks to Kevin's Remarkable Learning Blog (a fellow Forbes Blog Network member) for his Seven Steps for Mending Broken Business Relationships.
Each of the seven steps can help litigators de-escalate the conflict inherent in litigation before all-important settlement negotiations, whether they are conducted with the assistance of a third party neutral or not.
One or more of them might also help ease tension in the law firm -- a very tense place these days given the ...
(8/13/08)
Keith Seat
A research report on an appropriate mediation model for long-term care facilities concluded that care could be improved by involving residents and families through mediation, but that intensive outreach is required within facilities. Many cases referred to mediation were not mediated due to barriers from lack of knowledge of potential benefits and availability. The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.
Health & Medicine Week (August 4, 2008) (Subscription Required)
Calling all divorce mediators: inside the mind of a divorce lawyer (7/21/08)
Geoff Sharp When next at mediation a jaded divorce attorney collapses in the chair nearest to you, remember this has been their journey;
'Dear client,
I am pleased that you have hired me to represent you in your divorce. I'm pleased because I need the money you and others like you pay me. I'm tired of working with people like you who are always fighting and never happy, and often unhappy with me, but I feel trapped now and don't know how I could change my practice at this point in my career without a ...
The Four Faces of Face (5/15/08)
John Ng This paper investigates the relationship between maintaining face and mediation and its effects on parties.
Are You Really Ready for Divorce? The 8 Questions You Need to Ask (5/12/08)
Bruce Derman, Wendy Gregson This article outlines what couples need to do in order to face the numerous dilemmas that are inherent in divorce. A dilemma implies that you are torn between two choices, each of which have undesirable fearful elements. If people have not resolved their dilemmas before the divorce, they go through the process trying to manage their fear in different ways by hiding their doubt, responsibility; vulnerability, or dependency.
Report from the Wingspread Conference on Domestic Violence and Family Courts (3/31/08)
Clare Dalton, Nancy Ver Steegh In February of 2007 the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts brought together a working group of thirty-seven experienced practitioners and researchers to identify and explore conceptual and practical tensions that have hampered effective work with families in which domestic violence has been identified or alleged. Five central sets of issues were raised at the conference and are discussed in this report. These include the following: differentiation among families experiencing domestic violence; screening and triage; participation by families in various processes and services; appropriate outcomes for children; and family court roles and resources. The report emphasizes the need for continued multidisciplinary collaboration in order to better serve families affected by domestic violence and it includes an appendix of consensus points as well as suggestions for formation of ongoing work groups.
The Client-Centered Process: Common Ground for Mediators And Collaborative Professionals (2/25/08)
Chip Rose In his “Letters to a Young Poet,” the Czech poet, Rainer Maria Rilke counsels a young man who sent some of his work to the aging artist seeking his opinion. In one of the most memorable portions of the correspondence, Rilke encouraged his young artist friend to find comfort by “living in the question”—trusting that to do so was a far more productive endeavor than obsessing about the answers. I cannot think of a more appropriate point of professional departure for those of us who work with interpersonal, relational conflict than to practice the art of “living in the question.”
Generational Negotiations (1/28/08)
Joshua N. Weiss In this podcast Josh interviews Dr. Cathy Rodgers and Dr. Scott Mills, two generational negotiation experts. The three discuss the dynamics found in generational negotiations and some tips for how to manage them.
MP3 File
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