Family Law Mediation

I follow the method of principled negotiation which was developed at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Having practiced law for many years, I have witnessed the evolution in the ways we have come to quantify or value both the tangible and intangibles of this world.  The older quantifying methods sought to place a dollar value on everything.  While this may still be a very valid method when dealing with standard widgets, it simply does not lend itself to the valuation of more complicated matters such as the value of spending a particular holiday with your child or the family's favorite christmas ornament.  A twenty dollar portrait that hung above the family mantle may actually be quite priceless to a particular parent.

A principled negotiation is an interest-based negotiation which recognizes and allows for the subjective way each party values their world, their possessions, their family, and their time.  It separates the parties from the "problems" and focuses on interests rather than positions.  Once this shift occurs, the parties are able to create new options and solutions for mutual gain.  For more information, please visit http://www.pon.harvard.edu/hnp/theory/theorymain/theory.shtml

I mediate parties who are represented by Counsel, as well as those who are not.  Mediation affords divorcing parties the most amount of control over the division of their assets, debts, and custody arrangements.  No agreements made during mediation are binding unless they are agreed to and signed by both parties.  The vast majority of all divorce cases are settled before trial.  Tragically, too many mediations take place after several thousands of dollars in legal fees have already been spent preparing for a trial.  By this time, most parties are quite aggravated with each other -- not an optimal mode for effective co-parenting.  Doesn't it seem logical that the first step should be mediation?