WHAT IS MEDIATION?

Raising children in Philadelphia can be hard. Raising children as an unmarried couple can be even harder. Sometimes both parents can't seem to agree on a particular issue or issues such as vaccination, visitation rights, parenting plans, or religious affiliation. More intense disagreements can occur when one parent decides to relocate outside of the area, or a child expresses wishes to not visit a parent. 

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If a solution can't be made in-house then a parent might believe that their only other option is to petition the court to acquire legal and/or physical custody. Thankfully, there's one other sufficient avenue that doesn't involve lawyers or the court system.

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Parents can participate in custody mediation. Custody Mediation is when disputing parents have a series of discussions with a neutral professional with the objective of peacefully resolving the issue at hand. The goal is to create a memorandum of understanding that will list the solution to the issue that was presented before the mediator. Issues such as legal and physical custody, child support, visitation, relocation, etc. The mediator can not provide legal advice or representation to either party.

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Mediation is one of the most effective ways to resolve a family dispute. The proof is in the facts, as almost every family court in the Philadelphia area has made it mandatory for both parties to go to mediation (excluding those of domestic violence) after filing a petition. So why pay thousands of dollars to go to court if you're going to end up in mediation anyways?

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