The Supreme Court Committee on Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules and Policy recently released, as a pilot, a screening instrument for the use of parties who have been referred to family mediation.

The screening instrument was developed by the Domestic Violence Subcommittee (Judge Robert Doyel, chair; Judge Lynn Tepper and Robin Davis) with the assistance of the staff of the Office of Court Improvement and DRC. The goal of the pilot is to test the screening instrument for validity through the use of a two part questionnaire; part I would be completed prior to the commencement of the actual mediation session and part II would be completed at the conclusion. Questions attempt to ascertain whether the parties will be able to “meaningfully participate” in the mediation process and if so, whether the mediator needs to utilize any special procedures in order to effectuate an appropriate mediation. This inquiry is important to mediators who have an ethical obligation pursuant to rules 10.310(d) and 10.420(b), Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators to cancel or postpone a mediation if a party is unable to freely exercise self-determination or to participate meaningfully in the process.

While section 44.102(2)(c), Florida Statutes, provides that “Upon motion or request of a party, a court shall not refer any case to mediation if it finds there has been a history of domestic violence that would compromise the mediation process,” there has been concern that, to date, cases in which domestic violence is present may not have been appropriately screened out prior to the referral to mediation. Part of the difficulty has been that parties may not know of the statutory provision. One anticipated benefit of the screening instrument is that parties will be put on notice that they can bring the history of domestic violence to the attention of the court.

The pilot is scheduled to run through December 15, 2005. The family mediation programs in the following circuits have volunteered to take part in the pilot:

The results of the pilot will be analyzed and the Committee is prepared to make revisions in the screening instrument if warranted. Results of the pilot will be published in a future issue of the Resolution Report.