General Knowledge

Litigants in family court can sometimes have a difficult time proving contempt due to either poor drafting or incomplete court orders.   Charleston Attorney Greg Forman recently won a partial victory in the Court of Appeals in the matter of Brantley v Brantley filed on August 30, 2023.  Greg&#...

It’s hard to imagine, but mediation in domestic relations cases is an adversarial process that leverages settlements of complicated financial and child custody issue.  I say “leverage” because after a mediation both parties generally feel as if they had no option but to agree ...

Many law firms have created a very profitable business model capable of handling a large volume of cases. The critical component of this new business model is the billable hour fee arrangement. The billable hour fee arrangement is now the gold standard for much of the legal industry, including...

One of the biggest barriers to resolution a mediator will confront is lawyers who are have not prepared their case for mediation. Not to long ago I was mediating a case for two excellent family law lawyers, Mandy Kimmons and Emily Neal.  They had a big case involving just about every family law...

I have been a trial lawyer for over 30 years, however I am a relatively new mediator. I am finding that many attorneys are not fully prepared for mediation and seem to expect me to fill in the missing pieces and find a settlement for them. Well, I may be good, but I can’t work […]...

Proper preparation for mediation is critical for family law lawyers. Did you know a significant minority of lawyers fail to properly prepare, or prepare at all, for a domestic relations mediation? Did you know a significant minority of lawyers don’t use any software like Settlyd or Traxler to ...