Divorce

In wasington state, can a mediation attorney mediate for me and my wife, and then prepare and file our court documents?

This case includes children and property. We want one attorney to do it all.

Nathan’s Answer

While a mediation attorney, in his role as a mediator, may assist you and your wife in reaching consensus, it may be unethical for the mediator to then switch into his role as an attorney who then prepared and filed your court documents. The mediator should be independent of the legal process entirely. Thus it may be wiser to have an attorney mediator, or family mediator mediate the case, and then take the results of that case to an independent attorney to file. At that point, the attorney will discuss with you, as has already been done here, the option of being represented jointly, or having only one of the parties being represented, with the other party having the option of further representation if they deemed it to their best interest.