Stay out of the Courtroom--Mediate!

Based on my over 20 years of family law trial experience, I have developed my own set of guidelines or rules for you to think about when you have an active family law case filed in any court:

1) There is no ironclad case, especially when children are involved;
2) Only  leave your life  and decision-making in the Judge's hands if you absolutely have to;
3) Our adversarial system is not the proper system to resolve family conflict: and:
4) Court cases are very stressful, not to mention extremely expensive.

Court mostly focuses on the past; the great thing about mediation is that it focuses on what you can live with in the future.   Also, in mediation, you have more control over the final outcome.     

In the immortal words of the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want."    In a good mediation, all parties compromise to some extent.

As a family law attorney and Guardian ad Litem, I  specialize in mediating cases involving post-divorce, custody, paternity, or DCS investigations.    I was an attorney with  FL DCF for 3 years and with TN DCS for 7 years years.   While at TN DCS,  I took the test to become a board certified Child Welfare Law Specialist through the National Association of Counsel for Children in Colorado.     I am very passionate about the safety and stability of children, as well as the legal principles of fairness and justice.

As a mediator, I  now use the online platform provided by Zoom.us to conduct online mediation sessions.  Once you or your attorney schedules mediation with me, I  will provide you with a unique link to be used for the mediation session.   In advance of your mediation session, if needed, you will download and install the free software and/or apps from Zoom.us necessary to participate in the online mediation.  All parties should familiarize themselves with the operation of the Zoom platform prior to the mediation and check in to the mediation 5 minutes before your scheduled start time so that any technical issues can be addressed.  Your Zoom mediation can be accessed using a computer, a tablet, or phone.   Zoom.us has tutorials at http://support/zoom/us.   Contact the mediator ahead of time with any questions or concerns by email at attorneyrowell@hotmail.com or by phone at (423) 710-9195 (this number does not accept texts).