One of the more common requests that someone specializing in family law mediation in Colorado receives is for one or both parties to have a friend or family member attend the mediation with them to provide support. In most cases, it is then up to the specialist in family law mediation Colorado to explain that including extended family directly in the family mediation process can often-times make the process much more difficult for all concerned.
Firstly, all parties to the mediation, along with their counsel, need to agree to the presence of someone who is not a party at the mediation. This process in itself can cause conflict, as one party may not like the feeling that their former partner has more “support” or in some way has an advantage that they do not have. In addition, the fact that an extended family member wants to attend the family law mediation to support one party generally means that they are not in support of the other party, which can lead to disagreement as to whether the family member may attend.
While it may feel like having the support and agreement of extended family members may be helpful, it usually only prolongs the process and keeps the separating couple from working together in a cooperative way. It has previously been suggested that extended family members are never taught how to appropriately how to deal with a loved one’s divorce, and may respond by aligning themselves completely with one party’s position while insisting that the other party is “wrong.” This kind of interference is anything but helpful to the separating couple, who may genuinely wish to work cooperatively and make the most of their family law mediation opportunity to expedite the separation process.