In most jurisdictions, before scheduling a trial, the Court will order a settlement conference. These settlement conferences are the court’s last attempt to help you settle the matter before trial, and they are mandatory. They may be called pre-trials, mediations, special masters sessions, alternative dispute resolutions, or mandatory settlement conferences, and are typically scheduled to last between a half hour and a day.

The Court may or may not furnish a settlement officer. For example, in Connecticut the court furnishes an officer from the Family Relations Office, and if you are unable to settle your case using the Family Relations Office, the court will supply a judge to act as a settlement officer. If you have a contested custody matter, you may also participate in a settlement conference using an attorney-therapist team. In California, volunteer programs through the bar association supply lawyers to assist in settlement conferences. Other states’ programs team a lawyer and mental health professional to make recommendations. Typically, clients don’t participate directly in this process but wait in the hallway to discuss, accept or reject the recommendations made by the officers. You may only have a few minutes to talk with your lawyer about the recommendations before being required to respond. At this stage, if not before,  the benefits of private mediations discussed in Chapter 3 become apparent.

You have the option of rejecting recommendations made, but it is often counter-productive to do so when an experienced officer of the court tells you your likely outcomes in the event of a trial.

Once your case has been negotiated and, hopefully, settled, you can ask the court for a date upon which you can do an uncontested divorce hearing where you will present the agreement for the judge to approve. If you do not settle your case at this stage, a trial is scheduled.

If you are not sure where to get started, see http://www.peace-talks.com/divorceinformation.php. Also be sure to visit the Peace Talks resource center at http://www.peace-talks.com/resources.php.

Excerpted from Your Divorce Advisor: A Lawyer and a Psychologist Guide You Through the Legal and Emotional Landscape of Divorce (Simon & Schuster/Fireside 2001). For more information: http://www.yourdivorceadvisor.com/.

For more information contact Peace Talks www.peace-talks.com 

(C) 2008  Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc.