By: Carole Chiamp

It is Often very helpful to use an expert in Mediation.  This article will give you reasons why, when and how you may want to use a financial expert and the types of experts who may prove most useful.  Click this link to see the full article…Experts in Mediation.

By: Carole Chiamp

There’s a way that most divorce negotiations work.  Planning, researching, setting goals, strategizing, then engaging in mediation sessions that ultimately lead to a signed settlement agreement. Click this link to see the full article…Negotiating and Closing.

By: Carole Chiamp

Times are tough around the globe.  Times are even tougher in Michigan as we all know.   Click this link to see the full article…Mediaton in Tough Times?

Where There Is Domestic Violence.

By: Carole Chiamp

The literature indicates that serious concerns have been raised about safety, power imbalances and the rights of the battered victim when mediation is used instead of litigation.  Mediators need to fully understand that domestic violence may affect mediation and be prepared to deal with it.  Click this link to see the full article…To Mediate or Not?

Mediation Matters
By:  Carole Chiamp
Chiamp & Associates, P.C.

“Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?”

— Bumper Sticker

Preparing Your Client for Mediation:  What Clients
Need to Hear

What is the toughest issue attorneys face in the negotiation and mediation process?  Preparing the client for mediation.  Whether you are using early or late mediation, the client must be prepared.  Attorneys often participate in mediation but they should assist in many different ways, especially in early mediation, by coaching the parties, reviewing documents, helping clients define or limit issues.  In order to be successful, preparation for mediation sessions is essential.
I asked a number of mediators who prepares their clients best for mediation and the name that came up repeatedly was Sally Rutzky, attorney.  I interviewed her to find out how she prepares her clients who are usually in early facilitative mediation.
She said that she tries to prepare them:  (1) substantively about the law and (2) to negotiate successfully.  When they ask her if a particular offer or demand is reasonable she professes ignorance.  She knows there can be no answer to that question without more information.  She finds a baseball analogy helpful to her clients though she claims little actual knowledge of the sport.  She advises them that mediation is like a baseball diamond.  She has them think of first base as gathering information; second base as defining issues; third base as exploring all options; and home plate as reaching agreement.  She advises that it does no good to hit the ball out of the park.  The scoreboard will not light up.  The client must go to and around all the bases in order:  first, second and third.  Then, and only then, will they get to home plate or agreement.  She teaches them that, when they flounder or hit an impasse which she tells them she knows they will, they should return to her for assistance.
Sometimes a client who is quite knowledgeable about the process will want to mediate.  Others who have been told mediation can be cheaper and less stressful want to use it for that reason.  However, a client cannot possibly know all they need to know.  Attorneys need to assist them.
Explain the process.  As attorneys, we are comfortable with mediation, having used it often.  Parties are unaware that when mediation is used and participants first meet it sometimes appears nothing will get settled.  Parties need to know that they may hear some unpleasant information and they should be prepared to receive and deal with the information.  They must know that the process is confidential.  They need to know that their case has both strengths and weaknesses and that they can seldom “hit a home run” in mediation.  Compromise is what mediation is about.
Identify problems.  Clients sometimes come to mediation with unrealistic expectations.  For example, clients often have heard that they should receive 50% of the property but they often don’t know that that percentage may not include inherited or gifted property.  The attorney must educate the client to have realistic expectations.  That means ensuring that your client knows the relevant law and the likely courtroom outcomes.
Advise the client on the range of costs.  Many clients who want to mediate early make the decision to mediate themselves and resist lawyer involvement.  They believe having an attorney and a mediator to be duplicative.  As the attorney you will need to let them know what you will do to assist whether it is helping to gather documents, helping to prepare various parenting plans or spreadsheets or assisting in forming reasonable strategies for settlement.  While explaining, the attorney should point out the difference in the cost of mediating and litigating.  The attorney should advise the client of loss from work to do depositions, emotional involvement and the impact on personal life.  Gentle reminders of the negative realities of trial can be quite helpful in movement toward a negotiated settlement.
Nancy Hudgins, a practitioner from San Francisco, has provided her clients with “Ten Tips for Preparing for Divorce Mediation”1:
1.    Envision civil negotiations.
2.    Make a checklist for each session.
3.    Sketch out a parenting plan or two.
4.    Gather financial documents.
5.    Strive for fairness in asset and debt division.
6.    Draft a monthly budget for expenses.
7.    Address the inevitable shortfall.
8.    Consider spousal support and calculate child support.
9.    Consult a family law lawyer.
10.    Monitor your attitude.  Stay positive.

I’m inclined to believe if every mediatee followed her checklist the process would go very smoothly.1.    Nancy Hudgins, Real Divorce Mediation:  Ten Tips for Preparing for Divorce Mediation, <http://www.realdivorcemediation.com> (accessed December 10, 2009)

Many people contemplating divorce think they can be detectives and learn information that may help them in their divorce.  It is true that being vigilant can be helpful.  However, trying to spy on others can be tricky and even criminal.
Civil lawsuits are increasing dramatically because litigants in divorce and custody disputes improperly, and sometimes illegally, tape record, take information from computers or follow others improperly.  Surveillance means “ a close watch kept over someone or something”.  When done incorrectly, it can cause serious problems.  The current state of the law regarding communications, such as, eavesdropping, acquiring computer information and stalking is evolving and often requires professional training be anyone trying to use it and stay within the law.  If not properly addressed, the information obtained may not be able to be used.  Even worse, serious consequences, such as fines, money damages in the thousands of dollars and refusal by the court to use the evidence, may befall the unwary.
In Michigan, federal law prohibits most eavesdropping.  In Michigan state courts, eavesdropping of a person speaking by phone to another person, when the person doing the recording is not a participant, is illegal.  However, one person recording a call in which they are a participant, even if the other person does not know of the recording, is not illegal.
The laws regarding what may be taken from a computer are very confusing.  If it is a “family” computer that is openly accessed, then information can be culled from it.  The more private the computer or the more personal the information, the closer to illegal taking the information may be.  There may be many ways of obtaining the information, such as removing the hard drive for copying; “key logging” which involves software which copies and stores every keystroke, so that e-mails and other typing may be saved is also available.  Most of the use of this software is illegal and will render the information inadmissible.
Certain surveillance by investigators is legal.  That has not stopped those from being followed from suing for being “stalked”.  Stalking must be without legitimate purpose.  Licensed investigators following a person to obtain information with reference to securing information to be used in court or a board or investigating committee are allowed to do their job.  However, placing electronic devices on vehicles to obtain information regarding the whereabouts of a  person is usually illegal.
All in all, there is a balance which must be maintained regarding investigation versus right to privacy.  When the balance is not maintained, the law is broken.  Not knowing the law can cause serious problems.

Five attorneys from our office were selected by dbusiness magazine, Detroit’s premier business journal, as the best lawyers of 2010.  Steven Hickey, Michael Cianciolo, Patrick Fishman, Charles Cheatham, and ‘of counsel’ attorney Carole Chiamp.

Steven M. Hickey has been selected as a Michigan Super Lawyer for 2009.  Super Lawyers is a listing of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.  In selecting attorneys for Super Lawyers, Law & Politics employs a rigorous, multiphase proces.  See selection process.  Peer nominations and evaluations are combined with third party research.  Each candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement.  As a result this list represents an elite group of lawyers comprising less than 5% of the State Bar of Michigan.  See his profile at Super Lawyer.

Carole Chiamp recently won a child support case in the Michigan Court of Appeals.
The case involved a motion made by a mother for more child support of a child in her custody ten years after the judgment of divorce was entered.  Usually a court will review child support every two years or so.  However in this case the father of the child who had a prenuptial agreement with the mother to provide her with $3 million dollars in property settlement at the time of the divorce, had provided his former wife with $6 million dollars to create a similar standard of living to his for his child.  He also provided $100,000 per year in child support with cost of living increases.  In addition, he provided for health care, payment for extra-curricular activities and college education.  The parties agreed in writing to the original order, made a record and the judge specifically approved the settlement.  Wen the mother of the 13 year old told the court that the father of the child was so wealthy he could pay more, the court declined to order more.
The lower court granted summary disposition in the father’s favor and the Michigan Court of Appeals denied leave.  Therefore the father will not have to pay more child support.