Slicing the Pie

Abstract

Lately much attention has been correctly paid to training and accrediting family mediators to minimum standards of knowledge around domestic violence, the support of vulnerable people and the Family Law Act's reforms to place children at the centre of parental discussions. I suggest that it would be detrimental if family mediators, in their efforts to assist separating and divorcing parents, lost their focus on property settlements.

Material resources are intimately involved in family separation: for many separating parents decisions about material things and money cannot be made until future living arrangements are agreed; for others it is the reverse and the settlement of property will guide how and where the children will spend their time. A family mediator cannot and should not know which of these agenda items should come first and often they come together in an exasperating entanglement for the parents or parties. (I do not forget that not all separating people have dependent children or any children.)

This paper offers at least three techniques mediators can use to maximise productive outcomes around property. I allude to specific skills that may be useful to mediators involved in property settlements and in managing the process.
 

John Cleary
Relationships Australia Queensland
FDR Program Leader, Senior Staff Mediator