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MEDIATION AND THE PROCESS OF FAMILY LAW REFORM
Author(s) -
Mosten Forrest S.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/j.174-1617.1999.tb00543.x
Subject(s) - mediation , restructuring , alternative dispute resolution , argument (complex analysis) , unbundling , online dispute resolution , process (computing) , law and economics , party directed mediation , law reform , work (physics) , dispute resolution , public relations , political science , transformative mediation , law , business , sociology , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , biochemistry , chemistry , industrial organization , operating system
The family law system needs fixing. The real question is how to go about fixing it. The concept of mediation and its process should be vital in the rethinking and restructuring of the system. This article discusses how mediation can be used in policy‐making to get all the stakeholders in the family law system to creatively and non‐judgmentally work toward reform. The author contends that increased legal access and speedy low‐cost dispute resolution should be at the top of the reform agenda. Courts and professional offices are valued for their consumer‐friendliness, stressing nonadversarial settings and cleint education. Unbundling is urged to be not only accepted but also promoted as a practice to meet the legal needs of families. The article concludes with the argument that effective reform should incorporate the principles of mediation, and the reform process should take advantage of models of consumer friendliness from both the public and private sectors .