Abstracts and Biographies:
Family-child
Judging Mediation: Judicial Settlement Conferences in
Divorce-Related Disputes
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| Tom Fisher |
| Despite earlier interventions by lawyers, mediators,
counsellors, and other professionals, a small minority of divorce-related disputes still
heads for formal adjudication. Some of these seemingly intractable cases, however, first
come before judges and other bench officers in less formal settings, where they may use a
mixture of facilitative and evaluative techniques in often-successful attempts to save
needless emotional and financial expenditure. I will describe differing models from
Australia, Canada, and the USA and report specifically on evaluation findings regarding
the pilot program in the Melbourne Family Court. The ensuing conversation may deal with
questions about the involvement of judges in such processes, the ways in which they can be
most effective, and the strengths and weaknesses of the models described. |
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| Tom Fisher, PhD, is senior lecturer and coordinator of the
graduate programs in conflict resolution and family law mediation in the School of Law
& Legal Studies at La Trobe University. A qualified family law mediator, he is a
co-author of two major studies in that field for the federal Attorney-General’s
Department and has published articles in Mediation Quarterly and the Australian Dispute
Resolution Journal. He currently holds a Small ARC grant to evaluate a pilot project in
judicial settlement conferencing at the Melbourne Family Court and has been engaged as a
consultant to the Attorney-General’s Department to work on a professional development
program in child-focussed family dispute management for mediators and counsellors. |
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Related sites: Ausdispute | Conflict Management Research Group | AAPAE Conference
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Updated 21 February 2003 |
