Letters : In Defense of Family Mediation Process

Iam compelled to write this letter in response to the recent attacks upon the Family Relations Department of the Ventura County Superior Court and the family law division of the court. These attacks have served to spread misinformation and irrational fears of the court and mediation process in this community.

I am proud to serve the people of the county of Ventura as the senior mediator of the Family Relations Department of Superior Court. I have worked as a divorce mediator for the past six years and have seen approximately 2,500 families in times of crisis. I work with a staff of compassionate, competent, insightful and ethical persons, each with their own styles, skills and unique backgrounds. Our staff is varied, including persons from diverse ethnic, racial, religious and social groups; one man and eight women. We share a commitment to children and families. The staff is thorough, informed and articulate about our work with divorcing families.

As a result, the court considers our expert opinions and the data on which they are based seriously, as it does other evidence presented in contested custody and visitation hearings. These issues are perhaps the most important of those brought before the court because they involve the well-being of children. It is a statutory requirement that each contested custody case be referred to mediation in an attempt to help the parents themselves determine the course of their children’s lives.

The Family Relations Department sees only 10% of divorcing families. The other 90% either have no children or resolve custody and visitation issues themselves. Of the 10%, approximately 85% of these families are able to resolve the issues with the help of their mediator. An additional 10% are referred to private psychologists of the parents’ choosing for evaluation and written report to the court. Five percent are referred for investigation by the judge, usually by agreement of the parents. Our department has 3 1/2 investigators, most of whom have worked in this capacity for 10 to 16 years.

Only 1% of these cases goes to hearing. These represent those families who have not been able to resolve their differences, even with the help of skilled attorneys, informal conferences with judges, clinical intervention by mediators (all licensed mental health professionals), custody investigators and/or private psychological evaluators.

In contrast to other court functions, our department is an agency of healing, not blaming. Occasionally, our client families are unable to disconnect from the blaming, which comes from the pain of shattered dreams and lives.

In some contested hearings, mediators in Ventura County provide expert testimony to the court, but only with the protections of due process (upon receiving a subpoena and subject to examination in open court by the litigants or their legal representatives). While some counties disallow litigants from calling mediators to testify, other counties do not provide the protections of due process. Instead, mediators speak with or write memoranda to the court without the requirements of subpoena or cross-examination.

In order for Ventura mediators to make informal recommendations to the court, the parties (usually through their attorneys) must both waive this right solely for the purposes of a conference and may speak with the judge only in the attorneys’ or parents’ presence. It is relatively rare that mediators make statements to a judge under any circumstances. Our goal is to promote self-determination in divorcing families, to empower parents at a time when they are on the verge of losing control over their children’s lives.

Children usually thrive when two parents are able to put their hurt aside and reassure the children of their ongoing love. We know through our expression and through carefully conducted research that children respond to unrestrained parental conflict in extremely negative ways, both immediately and in the long-run. We aid families every day in resolving their conflicts so that their children can grow emotionally, physically, intellectually and spiritually. I am proud to work with these parents and the staff of the Superior Court Family Relations Department.

ROBERT BEILIN, Ph.D.

Senior Mediator