Early this year, Multnomah County implemented a new local rule requiring mediation in family law cases.  Previously, all counties in the Portland metro area have had mandatory mediation regarding custody and parenting issues only.  This new rule in Multnomah county requires that parties engage in some type of mediation regarding issues of spousal support and allocation of assets and debts as well as custody and parenting time issues.   Perhaps other counties, such as Washington County and Clackamas county will adopt this rule in the future.

See below for an excerpt of the local rule:

Scope of Mediation Requirement. In any domestic relations case, all parties are
required to participate in some form of appropriate dispute resolution, including
mediation, arbitration, judicial settlement conference, or a neutral-assisted
settlement conference, regarding each of the following contested issues:
(a) child custody
(b) parenting time or visitation issues, other than enforcement
(c) spousal support and
(d) allocation of assets or debts.

The rule does contain some exceptions in cases where there has been domestic violence.

The Multnomah county Judges are taking this very seriously.  The day before trial in Multnomah county, the attorneys go to case assignment at the courthouse in Portland.  At case assignment the Judge will ask if the parties have engaged in mediation.  If the answer is no, the Judge may decide to postpone the trial.

Going to mediation may resolve the case and the parties will not have to go to trial at all.  The Court wants everyone to make that attempt first before coming to trial.  In just the last few weeks, several of us at Schantz Law have gone to mediation in some of our cases.  The results were incredible!  One case that we thought would never settle in mediation, did.  I saw our client out to lunch just a few days later and she came up to me with a big smile on her face hugging me and thanking me and praising her other attorney for the resolution and completion of her divorce.

Trial is always risky.  You never know what a Judge will do.  Sometimes settlement negotiations between attorneys (even in a collaborative case) end with no resolution.  A neutral third party mediator can break the impasse and offer new solutions that may not have been thought of before.  Or, a mediator can talk some sense into the unreasonable person.  Whether my case is in Portland or Hillsboro (Washington county currently doesn’t require mediation in non kid issues), I still try to resolve my cases through mediation.

Since part of my practice at Schantz Law is being a mediator, sometimes I am the one that other attorneys or parties contact to help them mediate their family law case.  It is always rewarding to use mediation which is an alternative to trial to resolve such personal issues.  The outcome is a compromise for both parties, but it is a known compromise, not a decision by a Judge that one or both parties don’t like.