These areas of mediation are the most personal because you are dealing with relationships in the immediate family. Mediation should help ease anxieties, allow the parties to speak freely and focus on constructive ideas for reaching a settlement. Each party, through their attorneys, if they are represented, should have equal input into that settlement agreement. Each party taking responsibility for his or her own fate saves them money and results in greater satisfaction with the outcome. Studies have shown that parties who participate in the decision making have a better relationship with the other party after the mediation and are more likely to comply with the agreement.
