Category Archives: Screening for Power Imbalances and Family Violence

Safety Planning in Mediation: Part 3

The steps that family/collaborative lawyers, mediators and arbitrators can take, based on informed screening to enhance client safety are explained in part 3 of this blog series. MORE

Should family mediation be mandatory?

In Ontario we are lucky. The province funds extensive free and subsidized mediation services for separating couples, whether they are in court or not. Up to 8 hours of mediation is available, at subsidized rates, for all issues— parenting, support, property division. The statistics show high rates of agreement and client satisfaction. But some feel that voluntary mediation is not …
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It’s brilliant: Family Dispute Resolution in the UK

I just attended the annual Dispute Resolution conference sponsored by Britain’s legal family DR organization, Resolution.

Screening: Best Practices in Family Med-Arb

Screening is important in any family dispute resolution process to ensure that the parties, counsel, and dispute resolution professionals can engage in the process fully and safely. In family med-arb, there are particular concerns for the integrity of the screening process, because if the parties proceed to arbitration, they are “locked in” and cannot voluntarily opt out of the process. …
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Screening for Family Violence

Accredited family mediators and arbitrators in Ontario are now required to complete training on screening for family violence and power imbalances in family law disputes. But what exactly does “screening” consist of? We often get questions about the screening process, and so we decided to compile a list of common questions, depicted in the infographic below: On October 7th-9th, 2014, …
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United Kingdom: Family mediation-arbitration

This advanced workshop in the UK will focus on challenges facing family mediator-arbitrators in both Canada and the UK. MORE

Domestic Violence and Family Law Mediation

One of the most important responsibilities of a mediator is to provide a safe environment in which the parties work to resolve their conflicts. Without this safe environment, no mediation can be successful. This responsibility coupled with the threat of domestic violence has resulted in mediators feeling an aversion to working with parties whose relationship history includes domestic violence. Another …
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Power Imbalance Workshop in Seattle for APFM

On July 19-20, I was one of three trainers who gave a workshop on Power Imbalance in Family Mediation for the Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM). Hilary Linton and Claudette Reimer both run mediation programs in the Toronto area and they presented their methods for screening for power imbalance (especially for domestic violence) in individual intake interviews before meeting …
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