New Jersey Nightly News; A Closer Look: Divorce Mediation; 278

Yeah. When Judy Luger and her husband Sandy decided to end their 21 year marriage they first considered the conventional route. Judy describes her first meeting with her attorney. There I've maybe at least seem to be a adversary situation set up. You know we'll do this and we'll get this and this will happen and that will happen. And I was very uncomfortable with having any more. Emotional feelings engendered it was difficult enough. Both my wife and I are. Have been fairly adventurous and willing to try. New approaches to solving problems. Which is kind of ironic when you think that we couldn't solve the problem of staying together in a marriage. Decided to. Look into the idea of mediation service. In that process couples meet with a mediator who may or may not be a lawyer to hammer out their own agreement about property distribution support and child custody. The couple may have their settlement reviewed by lawyers and then take it to court for final legal action.

I personally felt that I had a fair shake. It was a very equitable and that was one of the things I liked about it. If I got off the track and got into an emotional issue and got a little nasty or a frustrated mediator said to me hey we're not dealing with the issue let's get back on task. At first I was tense. And there were problems. We had a couple of very very heated discussions and I found that the mediator was very expert at defusing. The situation. The mediator is acts as a safety valve. And I thought it was a very effective process. Do you think that you achieved an equitable. Yes lawyers who support mediation say it would replace a drawn out court battles with informal discussions more likely to produce a lasting agreement. If two people are involved in making their own decisions not through intermediaries attorneys not through the court systems and they have to give and take in the

negotiation between themselves. They are more likely to stick with that agreement than if it's imposed upon them either through second parties. Attorneys were imposed upon by the court. A recent Denver Colorado study showed almost 80 percent of the couples who settle their divorce through mediation have abided by the agreement while only 33 percent of the cases handled by the courts went unchallenged. If those statistics hold true mediation could save the courts money. Proponents argue it will also save time for both the judicial system and the couples. To the extent that you're sitting down out of court and arranging on your own schedule how this is going to go you're not sitting around in court waiting to be heard along with a hundred other cases that may have been called that week. So to that extent it's a terrific time saver. As of last August there were almost seventeen thousand five hundred divorce cases pending in the New Jersey courts and 3000 of those were more than nine months old. Statewide figures on divorce mediation aren't available. The state Supreme Court however

has authorized experiments in custody mediation in four counties. Mercer Morris ocean and Burlington in the Burlington County project 72 contested custody cases went to mediation over an eight month test period last year 58 of those were settled. But opponents of divorce mediation contend it's not really a timesaver that 90 percent of all divorce cases are already settled out of court without ever going to trial. And they warn mediation participants risk much by not having their lawyers present during the sessions. There's a much better chance that somebody is going to get screwed in the process. Somebody is going to take a really bad loss. Generally that person who has the less knowledge about the finances less able to stand up to the other spouse school often argues that even if the mediator is a lawyer he or she can't fairly represent both sides. And if the mediator isn't a lawyer I think for non lawyers it is extremely bad.

Simply because all settlements or career would be based upon what would happen in a court room and the only ones who know that what I'm talking about custody or visitation as well as economic issues or really returns the ultimate mediation expert critics say is the judge and they advise New Jersey could clear the divorce case backlog simply by appointing more matrimonial judges because the idea of divorce mediation is so new and controversial. The state supreme court hasn't yet taken a formal position on the concept. The court does support something called an early settlement program now under way in 14 counties. There are divorce cases which have already gone to trial can be referred back to a two lawyer panel for review and a non-binding recommendation. But that's not true mediation so the court has asked a special subcommittee to study that issue. Judge Eugene serpent chairs the subcommittee. And you know that mediation that's the hotly disputed area and we haven't finalized our report in that regard. Right you are leaning towards

accepting custody mediation I think that I think it's fair to say that both the bench in a bar had generally feel that custody is an area that is particularly amenable serpent Teli says the subcommittee must take the opponent's viewpoint into account. There are attorneys there are judges who feel that in some sense there are defects in the concept of mediation. Which may well injure the litigant in the process. The subcommittee may also eventually tackle the problem of regulating groups like this one which teaches people to be divorced mediators. Most negotiations with strong negotiations with. The New Jersey council on divorce mediation operates the only such school in the state and it currently sets its own standards because the Supreme Court hasn't yet provided any guidelines. I'm Brenda Flanagan.