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Lawyers, Mediation, and the Management of Divorce Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Craig A. McEwen ,
Lynn Mather  and
Richard J. Maiman
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Abstract

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Despite a widespread assumption that divorce mediation and divorce lawyers are incompatible, lawyers do play active—if largely unexamined—roles in many mediation programs. This article reports on the work of lawyers in a state with mandatory mediation. We find that lawyers in Maine have generally embraced mediation because it helps them manage problems inherent in divorce practice. Mandated divorce mediation facilitates both settlement negotiation and trial preparation, permits client participation in decisionmaking without requiring lawyers to surrender control, provides a forum for resolving both legal and nonlegal issues, and promotes efficient case management.

Type
Lawyers in and Everyday Life: Mediation in Divorce Practice
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , 1994 , pp. 149 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

This research has been supported by grants SES-8910625, SES-8910649, and SES-8911653 from the Law and Social Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation. A sabbatical leave from Bowdoin College for Craig McEwen advanced the preparation of this article. The points of view represented here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the National Science Foundation. We would like to thank the Law & Society Review editors and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this article.

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