Domestic violence is a prevalent problem in Canada.  Unfortunately, family violence is a genuine reality for many families. Mediation is a great alternative to litigation, saving families, time, stress and money.  Although mediation is not mandatory in family law matters in Ontario, per 7.3 of the Divorce Act, it is highly suggested.

Evolutionary Purpose and Necessity---Machiavelli's Place At the Table. Abstract. While often dismissed as irrational, disingenuous, unethical or “Machiavellian,” game playing strategies and devices are a natural and necessary part of the negotiation and mediation of difficult issues and controversies. If acknowledged and monitored thoughtfully, gaming behavior allows participants a measure of self-protection and provides a lubricant for the constructive, creative and ethical management of complex issues.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.”  - Arthur Schopenhauer. “To be aware of limitations is already to be beyond them.”  - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”  -Arthur C. Clarke

My colleague, Ana Maria Maia Goncalves, and I have been working for the past year and a half on the development of a Universal Disclosure Protocol for Mediation (UDPM).  I’ll describe the process we’ve used and report on the status of the Protocol, but first let me address the fundamental question that prompted us to begin work in the first place:  why do we need a universal protocol for disclosure in mediation?

One of the things to think about when you are looking for a divorce mediator is whether they will meet with both of you together or will meet with you each separately. Meeting with each person separately in mediation is called “caucusing.” 

With an increase in remote mediation, many mediators are managing caseloads that have a multi-jurisdictional element (at times, unintentionally). In the past, a mediator and the parties could physically sit in the same jurisdiction, often where a court case was pending, and everyone knew or understood what laws, standards, and ethical considerations applied to the structure and process of the mediation. However, with each individual in a remote mediation process potentially located in a different jurisdiction, the lines have been blurred.