What is Family Mediation?

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Mediation is a process whereby a neutral and impartial third party acts to encourage and facilitate the resolution of a dispute without prescribing what it should be. It is an informal and nonadversarial process with the objective of helping the disputing parties reach a mutually acceptable and voluntary agreement. In mediation, decision making authority rests with the parties.

Family Mediation means mediation family matters, including married and unmarried persons, before and after judgments involving dissolution of marriage; property division; shared or sole parental responsibility; or child support, custody, and visitation envolving emotional and financial considerations not usually present in other circuit civil cases.

Types of Disputes in Family Mediation

  • Pre-suit divorce cases with pro se spouses or accompanied by attorneys

  • Filed divorce cases where parties have requested mediation

  • Filed divorce cases referred by the trial court prior to a temporary relief hearing

  • Filed divorce cases referred by the trial court prior to a final hearing

  • Pro se divorse cases

  • Appellate divorses cases

  • Post-divorce modifications

  • Geographic relocation issues

  • Full financial disclosure

  • Equitable distribution

  • Shared and sole parental responsibility

  • Spousal support

  • Child support

  • Dissipation and/or concealment of marital assets

  • Voluntary underemployment or unemployment

  • Child abuse and neglect

  • Domestic Violence

  • Paternity

Advantages of Mediation

  • Confidential and private

  • Economically sound

  • Efficient

  • Informal and nonadversarial

  • Preserves dignity and the relationship

  • Pro-active dispute management

  • Disputant control over the outcome (self-determination)

  • Procedural and substantive flexibility

  • Open communication channels

  • Creative option and solution development

  • Address underlying interests and concerns rather than culpability

  • Control over establishing undesirable precedent

  • Control timing and methodology of resolution

  • Eliminates unlimited exposure and uncertainty of trial

Family Mediation is an emotional and legal process. A family mediator assists spouses, with or without children, in developing more effective conflict management skills. By assisting the disputing parties in altering their perceptions of their conflict circunstances, the Family Mediator provides them the opportunity for personal growth and creativity through the exercise of their self-determination.

Emotional Intelligence during Family Mediation:

How we feel about, and perceive, conflict is derived from our various life experiences such as at home, at work, in school, in religious institutions, ethnicity, gender, inout from television, radio, newspaper, periodicals, and many others. These feelings and perceptions are reflected in what we do when faced conflict.

Emotional Intelligence facilitates the process of exploring:

  • what the parties can do differently to develop a more positive results

  • an expansion of the choices available to the parties within the context of their dispute

  • where the parties have areas and details of agreement, although expressed differently by them

  • where the parties maintain interdependence and independence

  • those areas of difference upon which to build discussion

For more information or a consultation call 321-209-4379


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