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Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution

Family Law MEDIATION – When TIME IS NOT ON YOUR SIDE:  Court-Based Mediation of Family Law Matters

**Approved for 18 hours of Specialization Credits for Certified Family Law Specialists
**Approved for 8 hours of Children's Counsel Credits per CRC 5.242(d)

Faculty: The Honorable Irwin Joseph and Dr. Donald Saposnek

This inter-disciplinary course is designed for judicial officers, attorneys, family law facilitators, staff in self-help centers, custody investigators, and others working in or with the courts who wish to learn and improve their skills in mediating family law conflicts. Special emphasis will be placed on resolving disputes with limited time available.  After an overview of advanced mediation principles and techniques, participants will engage in assessing actual cases and learning practical information and a range of solutions available through mediating. Interspersed within discussion and role-plays will be critical child development information, essential information about the psychology and dynamics of divorce, the ways in which high levels of conflict and emotions in family law cases present special problems, and the unique opportunities for dispute resolution.

What you will learn:

  • Overview of advanced mediation principles
  • Mediating as a judicial officer, facilitator, or judge pro tem 
  • Managing implicit power imbalances
  • The psychology and dynamics of high-conflict divorce
  • Utilizing specific mediation models appropriate to your jurisdiction
  • The anatomy of custody disputes
  • Attachment and alienation
  • Mediating personal property, custody, and visitation issues
  • Getting past the obstacles to stipulations
  • Mediating cases involving domestic violence
  • Special problems:  Self-represented litigants, the present economy, and parents who hardly know one another
  • Canons, ethics, obligations, and red flags

The Honorable Irwin Joseph serves as a Superior Court commissioner in Santa Clara County, after more than nine years of bench experience that has included family, civil, and criminal assignments. During four years in the Family Law Department in Santa Cruz County, he heard dissolution, custody, support, paternity, and domestic violence matters. He created the Judicial Mediation Program and the Early Neutral Evaluation Program for the Family Court. He has mediated thousands of conflicts since 1995. He was a faculty member of the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and a member of the Elkins Family Law Task Force. He is a graduate of La Verne University School of Law and UCLA. He cocreated this class in 2009 for those who wish to improve mediation skills in this difficult and contentious area of the law.

Donald T. Saposnek, PhD, is a clinical child psychologist, child-custody mediator, family therapist for over 40 years, and a national and international trainer of mediation.  He is also author of the classic book, Mediating Child Custody Disputes: A Strategic Approach, and coauthor of Splitting America: How Politicians, Super PACS and the News Media Mirror High-Conflict Divorce. He has mediated nearly 5,000 custody disputes since 1977, managed the Santa Cruz County Family Court Services for 17 years, and has published extensively on mediation, child custody and child psychology. He has been teaching on the psychology faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 1977, is editor of APFM's The Professional Family Mediator, and serves on the editorial boards of several international journals on conflict resolution.