The Scrivener's Dilemma in Divorce Mediation: Promulgating Progressive Professional Parameters

Authors

Robert K. Collins, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of LawFollow

Abstract

This Article starts with an examination of one state's relatively recent contribution to the controversy over divorce mediator drafting, and then tours the nation to illuminate the confusing array of approaches to this issue that have been adopted in different jurisdictions. It then steps back to examine the role that lawyers have traditionally played in assisting or impeding access to justice for divorcing couples, and explores why divorce mediation can now offer a more appropriate approach than classic lawyering to marital reorganization. It concludes with an endorsement of attorneymediators acting as scriveners for their clients, and explores an approach that, at the cost of abandoning some romanticized notions of law school education, would allow even non-legal mediation professionals the authority to meet their couples' critical needs for access to the courthouse.

Disciplines

Dispute Resolution and Arbitration | Law | Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility | Legal Profession

Recommended Citation

Robert K. Collins, The Scrivener's Dilemma in Divorce Mediation: Promulgating Progressive Professional Parameters, 17 Cardozo J. Conflict Resol. 691 (2016).
Available at: https://larc.cardozo.yu.edu/cjcr/vol17/iss3/4