News today from the South Carolina Judicial Department announced a March 14, 2013 Supreme Court order making Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester Counties subject to mandatory alternative dispute resolution for “cases filed in the circuit court and the family court on or after June 1, 2013.” Previously the local family courts were pretty uniform about requiring mediation for all cases that required more than two hours of docket time. Now any contested case is going to require mandatory mediation.
This will certainly benefit local family court mediators, who stand to obtain even more business. It will further benefit the wealthier litigant, who can force the opposing party to jump through the expense of mediation prior to getting “their day in court.” I’m not sure if this change is beneficial otherwise.
Typically, family court cases that have the potential of settling in mediation get mediated. However, when I have to deal with an unreasonable pro se I don’t want the hurdle of mediation to come between my client and a trial. My two family court trials the past three weeks have both been against pro se parties and neither case would have benefited from mediation. We just needed to get to court and let a judge make a decision.
My impression of many of the recent Supreme Court rule changes regarding family court is that they appear reasonable but really do little more than add litigation expenses. Mandatory mediation is yet another example of a rule change that ultimately benefits the legal professional more than the client.
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I’ve been to several mediations with pro se litigants who were complete wild cards, and because the mediator was able to gain their trust, the cases settled. The trials would have been very costly and time consuming.
And I just tried a support modification case in which a pro se and her “legal representative”-husband sent defamatory letters to the court on a weekly basis, sued me (and three judges, two guardians, and two of her previous attorneys) and filed a grievance against me. I couldn’t get to trial fast enough.
BTW, you mediated the divorce–successfully.
Oh boy – I know which one this is! The lawsuit didn’t get too far.
Hi,
I practice family law in California and out here they require mediation in all custody disputes, but mediation is free and the mediators are county employees. Anyways, it is interesting to read about issues you are facing in your jurisdiction.
Matthew Rosenthal
At a time when folks are splitting debt and stretching dollars, I don’t like the added expense. However, I agree that it can save cost of trial in the long run.
As for California — it’s an interesting idea, but in a state already posting a $16B budget deficit, is it the most wise expenditure of taxpayer funds?
Greg,
I share your concern in working with Pro Se individuals in the mediation process–especially when it becomes mandatory. I was recently assigned a case by the Mediation and Meeting Center wherein the husband was Pro Se. He didn’t want to work with me as I wasn’t an attorney and he felt like the mediator would either: make the decisions for them in a mini-trial mode and/or would have pity on him because he didn’t have an attorney and therefore give him some advice. Challenging…..
Greg -
I agree with your analysis. While mediation is certainly helpful in many cases, not everyone can afford it, and not every case benefits from it.
I think it will ultimately cause problems here for less wealthy clients, especially when there are children’s issues involved. In a typical case, the client (who is of average financial stability, but not particularly wealthy) will be paying (1) a lawyer $200/hour, (2) a mediator $75/hour, and (3) a GAL $75/hour [or more, depending on the circumstances]. It just isn’t feasible for a lot, maybe even a majority, of people.
To paraphrase Vinny Gambini: Everything that guy just said ain’t bullshit.
Mediation his costly and feels like a force to agree. I went to mediation against my son’s father concerning child support, visitation and custody. My son’s father was pro se and claiming to be unemployed. I submitted all my income, financial declaration and affadavits and he provided nothing. We paid the mediator $300.00 a piece. The mediator tried to make me agree to everything and tell what he know what the judge going to do