Describe at least six ways in which family law mediation differs from other types of mediation

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Mediation in the family law context has therapeutic dimensions and helps clients deal
with their emotions in order to move toward agreement.
• Family mediation is often not attended by attorneys for the parties, and sometimes such
attendance is actually prohibited by law. This raises issues of fairness, especially when
there is already an imbalance of power between the spouses.
• Parties are often not well informed about their legal rights, especially if they are acting
pro se, which is increasingly the case in family disputes, often putting the mediator in the
role of explaining the law.
• Because most mediated family law settlements are entered as the judgment of a court,
family law mediators must be sensitive to the trading of property rights for child custody
concessions, in that judges are reluctant to accept custody terms that have been "bought.".
• Family law mediation is often highly time sensitive and urgent where the well being of
children is involved and/or the parties cannot afford a trial.
• Party representatives in family law disputes are likely to keep a lower profile than
normal during joint sessions due to the hostility that the other party is naturally going to
feel for his or her spouse's advocate.
• Because family law disputes are almost always highly charged with emotion, mediation is
often characterized by displays of emotion and must provide an outlet for these feelings
in order to reach a resolution.
• Divorcing parties are likely to be sensitive to the gender of the mediator, which often
means that a male-female team will mediate divorce disputes.