Court Mediation vs. Private
Many cases, once filed, get “sent to mediation,” but this phrase can mean a few different things. This post explains the different types of mediation that can be required or offered for a court case, and explains why we think what we offer is particularly helpful.
Most family law courts in California and many landlord/tenant courts offer some degree of day-of mediation, meaning that, if both parties show up for court, there will be a mediator present who will attempt to help the parties mediate their disagreement. Unfortunately this is less and less common as cut-backs and general court chaos get more pervasive, and also unfortunately, mediators working in these courts have very little time to help the parties on their issues. I’ve done these and it’s not uncommon to have 50 cases on a half-day docket; you can imagine how little time that leaves, even if not all the cases want to mediate. Certainly for cases like civil harassment filings or evictions, you can expect maybe a half hour for both parties out of day-of mediation, less in courts like SF or Contra Costa. Alameda Co. almost never has mediators anymore, day-of or otherwise.
Family law generally also has people who make recommendations to the court on custody matters, as well as general purpose family mediators in the larger court systems. The same basic issues apply here: parties working for the court have very little time, and fairly commonly, one or both parties have been briefed by their respective attorneys as to how to game mediation to get a good recommendation. The lawyers have to do this: most family courts are very busy and take recommendations from Family Court Services as their default order, since it saves time. Thus it’s not really mediation, often; the parties are forced to go and one or both has probably gotten a cheat sheet.
There’s also options for litigants to do court-supervised settlement conferences, but those differ so much from courtroom to courtroom it’s hard to give an overview.
Last but best, in our opinion, is that the court, in a family or civil matter, may refer the parties to private mediation. This is also, generally, the more expensive option, though please see our page on Pro Bono Mediation. Private mediators, like us, have a lot more freedom to set the terms of mediation, and a lot more time to get at the issues. Unlike a court mediator, we don’t take more cases than we can give our full attention to, and we’re able to offer mediation in a format that works best for the parties, including in person at our office, in person in a good spot for the parties, or virtually over Zoom.
We’re also not on the hook to provide a recommendation, which helps a lot. A family court mediator often must, on the strength of a very brief back and forth with the parties, indicate to the court who they think the child in question should spend most of their time with. This is a very hard call to make, particularly so quickly, which leaves a lot of people with complaints about family court services. We’re able to work with both parties to create a much more thorough plan than just, Custody to Mom, Support to Follow, and we find it leads to much better outcomes.
So, in sum, private mediation is generally more expensive but, in our opinion, it’s worth it. You get to do mediation on your terms with someone who has the bandwidth and professional training to help you and the other party come to a real resolution, and you have the opportunity to actually get at the heart of some of your problems and resolve them. Coming to affordable private mediators like us is an even better idea if you went to day-of mediation and it failed, or you got a recommendation you don’t understand or agree with from Family Court Services. Often the problem with a mediation session was the format, not the people, and by coming to a provider that’s flexible and responsive on the format, you maximize your chances of actually solving some problems.
