Adversaries who refuse to try mediation will miss that broader context and often pay heavily for a judgment that does not resolve the real conflict and which provides a solution that costs more than it awards. In this column I am addressing instances where mediators often provide a very useful broader context that addresses important issues. Most divorces have more issues that need to be resolved than just who has primary custody of the children and how much child support should be paid. If just the legal issues were the ones that caused the problems, most people who are in the divorce process would not be getting divorced. Of course there are structures built into the process that help.
Most states now have standard visitation and support guidelines.
This allows the areas of communication to be channeled and directed with firm boundaries. However, educational plans, child rearing decisions, residency, weekend sports commitments and similar issues often cry out for co-mediation of a divorce with both a family counseling specialist and an attorney. Because most family law matters are caused by the broader context which the law ignores, mediation is especially suited to resolving those issues and in aiding the parties in dealing with the future in ways they could not deal with the past. Labor and Business . Labor and business relationships generally have very clear alternatives to negotiation.