The Red Velvet Lawyer

In late October 2005, I conducted a mediation involving four parties, all of whom were represented at the mediation by counsel.  The presence of lawyers at the mediation was itself unusual according to some limited empirical research.  Two studies in Arizona , two studies of California courts, and a study of sixteen courts nation-wide indicated that in divorce and child custody mediations held since 1992 to 2001, seventy-two to ninety percent of the mediations involved one pro se party.  Thirty-five to fifty-six percent of the mediations involved two pro se parties.   Data assembled by the National Center for State Courts showed that lawyers played no role in mediation in forty-three percent of the 205 court-related divorce mediation programs studied.  Other sources report that up to eighty-eight percent of family law cases, not necessarily in mediation, involve one pro se party.   Moreover, sixty-nine to seventy-two percent of c...