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Court-Ordered Mediation In Family Disputes: The New York Proposal, Linda Silberman, Andrew Schepard

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Marital and family disputes have been an important focus for alternative dispute resolution. Perhaps because divorce and custody disputes reveal the personal, human, and emotional aspects of conflict more visibly than other types of legal proceedings, attempts to resolve such disputes through the traditional legal process have proved remarkably ineffective. Mediation of divorce and custody matters is a particularly promising method of achieving more expeditious, less hostile, and more enduring matrimonial and custodial arrangements.

The mediation process offers to divorcing couples a neutral third party who will help the parties resolve their disputes. The mediator's function is to develop a …