Dependency Court Mediation at The Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Court
LCCR’s Dependency Court Mediation Assistance Clinic (DC-MAC) assists parents in Dependency Court, who would prefer to decide their own custody arrangement, and visitation schedule, rather than have a Judge decide for them. When confirmed by the Court, the parents’ mediation agreement may serve as the Exit Order from Dependency Court.
Our services focus on family reunification. DC-MAC students work directly with the parties, their attorneys and minor’s counsel. Students discuss parenting time and visitation schedules, help the parties talk about and negotiate a plan that will, hopefully, reunify parents with their children and also work on document preparation. The DC-MAC clinic affords these students invaluable hands-on case work experience and an opportunity to hone their client skills as well as skills needed to work with other attorneys. DC-MAC students take their experience and learned skills with them when they begin practicing law after graduation.
As the nation gripped with the pandemic, most courts came to a grinding halt for several months. Dependency court was no exception. Many families found their cases prolonged beyond expectations and caused many individuals to become more frustrated with their cases, attorneys and the process. The parties that are in Dependency Court have endured a long, stressful, emotionally draining and complicated process. When the courts finally opened, it was at a much slower pace, operating remotely via phone or zoom - burdening already over packed dockets.
LCCR’s DC-MAC clinic was able to transition along with the Court’s needs, providing mediation services remotely as well. After a ten-month hiatus, we reopened our program in January 2021. We found that providing remote mediations telephonically, our mediators were able to connect with the parties. After an isolating pandemic, parents were often so thankful to have a mediator spend an entire day listening, understanding their needs and interests and helping them get to a resolution so that they can move forward with their lives and have their cases closed. This provided relief not only to the parties we helped with our mediation services, but also gave much needed help to the court as well. Our mediation appointments increased steadily each month, doubling and even tripling.
From January 2021 through November 2021, LCCR’s DC-MAC clinic provided mediation services to over 115 dependency court cases and had a 90% success rate!