NCRC's Philosophy About Mediation

National Conflict Resolution Center’s (NCRC) Divorce and Family Law Mediation program has been in operation since August of 1994. The program was developed to provide services to clients of all income levels in a way that would be the least stressful and harmful to the clients and their children, if they have them. NCRC recognized that divorcing couples generally had to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have legal assistance in their divorce. Lower income individuals might be able to receive assistance through Legal Aid or the Volunteer Lawyer Program, but only in limited circumstances (e.g. for the custodial parent when the issue was custody). NCRC’s main goal was to provide a service that would help the family get through a legal, financial, emotional and life-changing event in their lives in a way that would minimize damage to either of them and/or the children, and at the same time, be less expensive and more cost effective than a full blown, adversarial litigated divorce.


The structure of NCRC’s program is one that:

• Allows the parties to make the decisions for themselves because they know more about what they and their children need than lawyers or judges;

• Makes sure that the parties have the legal, financial and personal information that they need to make good decisions. (They may be referred out to consulting attorneys for legal advice, divorce financial experts for financial advice, and therapists for personal and emotional support.)

• Provides a resource to the parties so they can understand the court timelines, form requirements, etc.

• Gives the couple a choice of mediators and a choice of locations. The mediators are family law attorneys, a family law retired judge and a licensed child psychologist, who provides confidential mediation services. The locations are in Downtown, El Cajon, Chula Vista, Encinitas and Vista.

• Allows them to maintain control over how and when they spend their money. They pay for sessions at the end of the sessions and they pay for documents whenever they are ready to do so (NCRC/WCRG doesn’t prepare the documents until the parties pay for them, but they may pay as their budget and interests allow.) We take Visa, MasterCard and Discover Card which can also make it a little easier for them.

The mediators and NCRC/WCRG administrative staff do their best to make the process smoother and easier for the parties. That’s what we do.

*West Coast Resolution Group (WCRG) is a new division of NCRC.  Retired Judge Susan P. Finlay provides mediation, private judging, settlement conferences through WCRG.