Online Family Dispute Resolution

This book brings together the expertise of two authors involved in initiating the development of Online Family Dispute Resolution (OFDR), while also examining the unique Australian system. The family arena generally comprises property or child-related disputes arising between parents, whether married or not, and whether the parties have lived together or not. A special feature of Australia’s OFDR system is that it deals with children’s issues rather than focusing on property distribution. The book first discusses how technological innovations have transformed dispute resolution services to families. It explores the need for OFDR and how such systems can potentially be implemented. In turn, the coverage shifts to screening tools used prior to a Family Dispute Resolution session to ensure that online systems are appropriate for the case under dispute and the people involved. Readers will then learn about the necessary training required – for administrators, practitioners and clients alike - for OFDR to be successful. In addition, the book offers a comprehensive evaluation of the system and reflects on the lessons learned to date. In closing, it suggests ways in which OFDR could be further developed and applied to family disputes around the world.

The editors' earlier book Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century (2016) described a period of turbulence in family justice arising from financial austerity. Governments across the world have sought to reduce public spending on private quarrels by promoting mediation (ADR) and by beginning to look at digital justice (ODR) as alternatives to courts and lawyers. But this book describes how mediation has failed to take the place of courts and lawyers, even where public funding for legal help has been removed. Instead ODR has developed rapidly, led by the Dutch Rechtwijzer. The authors question the speed of this development, and stress the need for careful evaluation of how far these services can meet the needs of divorcing families. In this book, experts from Canada, Australia, Turkey, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Scotland, and England and Wales explore how ADR has fallen behind, and how we have learned from the rise and fall of ODR in the Rechtwijzer about what digital justice can and cannot achieve. Managing procedure and process? Yes. Dispute resolution? Not yet. The authors end by raising broader questions about the role of a family justice system: is it dispute resolution? Or dispute prevention, management, and above all legal protection of the vulnerable?

Over the last 50 years family justice systems in the United States and elsewhere have evolved from a predominant adversarial approach focused on litigation to the significant integration of more collaborative, settlement-oriented approaches, especially mediation. In Family Dispute Resolution: Process and Practice some of the field's leading practitioners, researchers, teachers, and policymakers provide an overview of the modern family dispute resolution processes designed to help separating and divorcing parents make decisions about the future of their families. Chapters in this book address the growth of divorce mediation and other specialized processes including parenting coordination, arbitration, child-inclusive mediation, and online dispute resolution. They describe how to work with families experiencing issues including domestic violence, high conflict, substance misuse, and the lack of legal representation. Case management initiatives and special issues, including social science research and conflicting standards of practice, are also explored. Family Dispute Resolution provides a wide-ranging look at contemporary family dispute resolution processes and is essential reading for everyone interested in learning more about working with separating and divorcing families, including professionals, and law and graduate students.

This is the authoritative textbook on family mediation. As well as mediators, this work will be indispensable for practitioners and scholars across a wide range of fields, including social work and law. It draws on a wide cross-disciplinary theoretical literature and on the author's extensive and continuing practice experience. It encompasses developments in policy, research and practice in the UK and beyond. Roberts presents mediation as an aid to joint decision-making in the context of a range of family disputes, notably those involving children. Mediation is seen as a process of intervention distinct from legal, social work and therapeutic practice, drawing on a distinctive body of knowledge across disciplinary fields including anthropology, psychology and negotiation theory. Incorporating empirical evidence, the book emphasizes the value of mediation in mitigating the harmful effects of family breakdown and conflict. First published in 1988 as a pioneering work, this third edition has been fully updated to incorporate legal and policy developments in the UK and in Europe, new sociological and philosophical perspectives on respect, justice and conflict, and international research and practice innovations.

Topics covered include an overview of mediation, dispute resolution, mediation in practice: issues, procedures, skills, custody and access, support and property, professional conduct.

This is the authoritative textbook on family mediation. As well as mediators, this work will be indispensable for practitioners and scholars across a wide range of fields, including social work and law. It draws on a wide cross-disciplinary theoretical literature and on the author's extensive and continuing practice experience. It encompasses developments in policy, research and practice in the UK and beyond. Roberts presents mediation as an aid to joint decision-making in the context of a range of family disputes, notably those involving children. Mediation is seen as a process of intervention distinct from legal, social work and therapeutic practice, drawing on a distinctive body of knowledge across disciplinary fields including anthropology, psychology and negotiation theory. Incorporating empirical evidence, the book emphasises the value of mediation in mitigating the harmful effects of family breakdown and conflict. First published in 1988 as a pioneering work, this fourth edition has been fully updated to incorporate legal and policy developments in the UK and in Europe, new sociological and philosophical perspectives on respect, justice and conflict, and international research and practice innovations.

No matter your profession (attorney, clinician, family therapist) or skill level (seasoned professional or novice), The Handbook of Family Dispute Resolution is an invaluable resource that outlines the most effective mediation approaches, techniques, and skills. The Handbook of Family Dispute Resolution is a practical and comprehensive guide that includes * A review of professional ethics and standards * Help for attorneys who are not trained in the skills needed for working with families * Information about cultural issues that affect families during mediation * Highlights of key legal and negotiation skills * Guidelines for understanding complex family dynamics and conflicts * A screening tool for evaluating domestic violence * A matrix for starting discussions of parenting plans based on children's needs * An examination of specialized practices for family mediation * Direction for assessing one's professional approach to family mediation

Preface by Hugh McIsaac Family mediation has quickly become a significant means of legal dispute resolution, recognized in most North American jurisdictions as a relief to already overburdened judicial systems. Using an innovative practical approach, the authors of Family Mediation incorporate the pivotal principles of family therapy into this new context--the judicial realm of family mediation. The practice model--therapeutic family mediation--thoroughly treats history, specific issues, and practice in an ecosystemic approach and responds to feminist critique of mediation. In addition, the authors offer important perspectives on mediating with multicultural populations and the role of the mediator in child custody disputes and child protection cases. Through examination of family mediation research as well as helpful case history vignettes, the authors of this volume take action to fill significant gaps between family therapy and mediation. Family Mediation provides a new take on family mediation that will benefit not only professionals and researchers in family studies, social work, clinical psychology, and sociology but also professional and volunteer mediators, conciliation court personnel, and family law specialists. "Family Mediation is an excellent blend of scholarship and practice, and it is the best of the books I have read on family mediation. First, it is clear and well written. Second, it provides an in-depth, current review of the divorce literature. The literature on divorce is large, uneven, and difficult to interpret. The authors have done a service to the profession by skillfully reviewing and integrating this literature." --Stephen J. Bahr, Brigham Young University "This book is one of the most comprehensive and well-researched texts on mediation to date. The authors have compiled an immense array of information regarding the history of family mediation, the practice and knowledge base, a review of literature regarding divorce, the principles of mediation, gender and cultural issues, elements in a child custody dispute, sharing parenting, cultural issues, and the use of mediation in dependency, and they include an excellent summary of research conducted. . . . Of particular value is the enormous scope of the review of literature and the work of others, not only in Canada but also the United States, Australia, and Great Britain, underscoring the international nature of this transformation. What Howard H. Irving and Michael Benjamin have done is chart a major shift in the handling of conflict and they have done it very well." --Family and Conciliation Courts Review "Howard H. Irving and Michael Benjamin have surveyed and summarized an immense amount of material within the covers of this volume, presenting it in a clear, readable style. It is one of the rare texts on mediation that does justice to the complexity of families generally and families in North America particularly--to their diversity of culture, to the scope of feminist thought and gender differences, and to the ranges of social class. Their attention to divergent forms of mediation and differences in practice across jurisdictions is broadly sighted. An excellent choice for a text in mediation." --Mary A. Duryee, Family Court Services, Alameda County, Oakland, CA "Howard H. Irving and Michael Benjamin grapple with what is the most difficult event that confronts almost half of all modern families--divorce. Historically, the developmental issues and problems surrounding divorce have been solved in the courts. But modern-day courts are overwhelmed by an avalanche of divorce cases, more than a million a year, and are unable to meet the needs of separating parties. Family Mediation offers a fundamentally different approach from the conventional legal system. The empirical research and clinical experience Irving and Benjamin bring to bear on this subject have resulted in the seminal work in this area. This delightful and thoughtful book is a must for the modern mediation practitioner who works with families and children." --Duncan Lindsey, Professor, UCLA, and Editor-in-Chief, Children and Youth Services Review "This book is unique in providing a complete overview of relevant subject areas for family mediation under one cover. Its writing is timely because it dispels some of the myths in the rapidly expanding field of family mediation. . . . Family Mediation is a comprehensive text that follows the development of family mediation through the present and concludes with the predictors of future directions. It is perhaps the most thorough critical review of the literature pertaining to family mediation and develops an inclusive practical model of practice for practitioners. The book is readable . . . responsible, and of interest to family mediators and the family law lawyers who work closely with them. It may become a must as a background for the novice family mediator about to embark on a course of training." --Laurel Pearson, McWhinney, Metcalfe, and Associates, Toronto, Canada