Following 3 years of collaboration, AFCC and ABA Family Section Task Force, under the leadership of Nancy Ver Steegh, JD, MSW, Chair; Stacy Heard, JD, Chair; Donna Erez-Navot, JD, BSW, Reporter, unanimously approved the 2025 Revisions of Model Standards for Family and Divorce Mediation. Below, Donna Erez-Navot shares a reflection of the Task Force's journey to the publication of the Standards through her foreword, and a link to review the final product.

Reporter's Foreword - Professor Donna Erez-Navot

The Model Standards for Family and Divorce Mediation (“Model Standards”) serve as the ethical cornerstone for mediation in family and divorce matters. Over the past twenty-five years, the practice of family and divorce mediation has become increasingly widespread, structured, and embedded within legal and institutional systems. These updated Model Standards aim to promote public confidence in a continually evolving profession while offering clear and consistent guidance to participants, professionals, contracting agencies, and courts.

The guidelines in this area were originally varied and splintered. The Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (“AFCC”) released the 1984 Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce as a resource for state and national mediation organizations. AFCC adopted them after convening three national symposia, attended by representatives of more than thirty organizations, between 1982 and 1984, and seeking comment and review from more than 130 individuals and organizations. At the same time, the Family Law Section of the American Bar Association (“ABA”) created its own Standards of Practice for Lawyer Mediators in Family Law Disputes to guide lawyers who wanted to be mediators, defining how they could serve as both while staying within their ethical guidelines and standards of professional responsibility. The two standards were compatible, seemingly because they shared some of the same drafters, and interest in mediation grew after they were released.

In response to the growing interest in mediation in the 1980s and 1990s, numerous organizations, states, and courts developed and published their own standards of practice, both for general mediation practice and for family mediation specifically. These included, the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators from a joint task force of the American Arbitration Association, ABA, and the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution (“SPIDR”); the Florida Rules for Certified and Court-Appointed Mediators; and the Iowa Supreme Court, Rules Governing Standards of Practice for Lawyer-Mediators in Family Disputes among others.

In 1996, the ABA Family Law Section decided that a fresh look at the 1984 Standards was necessary and subsequently created what came to be called the Committee on Mediation—with members from the ABA, AFCC, AFM, and SPIDR. The Committee determined that the 1984 ABA Standards (1) did not address many critical issues relevant to mediation practice, such as domestic violence, child abuse, training, and cultural sensitivity; (2) applied only to mediators who were originally lawyers; (3) did not distinguish between private-practice and court-connected mediators; and (4) were inconsistent with subsequent guidelines by other bodies. Recognizing the importance of currentness and uniformity, the Committee concluded that the 1984 ABA Standards needed significant revision. The Committee then conducted research, examined other standards, and consulted with various experts before presenting a draft of revisions to the ABA Family Law Section.

In 1997, the ABA’s Family Law Section reviewed the Committee’s first draft and concluded that other interested mediation organizations should be included in the drafting process. To that end, in 1998, AFCC reconvened the Model Standards Symposium, joined by the ABA Family Law Section and the National Council of Dispute Resolution Organizations as co-conveners, where representatives of more than twenty family mediation organizations and legal organizations reviewed the Committee on Mediation’s draft standards. The Symposium then released its own draft for comment and received more than eighty change proposals. The Symposium met again in February and August 2000 to consider the proposals and make necessary updates, and the resulting draft standards were subsequently approved by AFCC and the ABA House of Delegates. 

Once approved, the 2000 Model Standards of Practice for Family and Divorce Mediation (“2000 Model Standards”) were released, addressing the holes and inconsistencies of past standards and intended not “as a final product but more like a panoramic snapshot of what [was] important to the family mediation community at the beginning of the new millennium. The drafters saw it as a framework for discussion and debate, a starting point for future additions and revisions.

Most of the 2000 Model Standards have stood the test of time remaining both relevant and essential. In 2022, the ABA Family Law Section and AFCC recognized that additions and revisions were needed because interest in and understanding of family mediation had again grown. As a result, an interdisciplinary task force was created to review and update the 2000 Model Standards, called the ABA & AFCC Task Force for the Revision of the Model Standards for Family and Divorce Mediation (“Task Force”). The Task Force was comprised of representatives from AFCC, ABA Family Law Section, ABA Dispute Resolution Section, Association for Conflict Resolution (“ACR”), and Academy of Professional Family Mediators (“APFM”).

The Task Force was intentionally composed as a collaborative body, bringing together mediators, attorneys, court-connected mediation program directors, academics, and mental health professionals. Experts in the fields of family law, domestic abuse, mental health, and court administration were appointed to join it. Over the course of a three-year drafting process, the full Task Force convened quarterly to ensure broad participation and consistent progress. In addition to these full-group meetings, specialized subcommittees met regularly to address key subject areas in need of revision, including technology, domestic abuse, self-represented litigants, the voice of the child, privacy and confidentiality, mediator training, self-determination, and overarching guiding principles. 

Public feedback played a critical role throughout the drafting of the revised Model Standards and was actively solicited and incorporated at multiple stages of the process. Members of AFCC provided input during open forum meetings held at AFCC’s Boston (Spring 2024), Columbus (Fall 2024), and New Orleans (Spring 2025) conferences. Additional feedback was gathered from members of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section during a presentation at the Spring 2024 conference in San Diego. A formal draft of the revised Model Standards was released jointly by AFCC, ABA, APFM, and ACR for public comment from March 22 to April 13, 2025. This public comment period yielded significant input, with nearly sixty-five individuals and mediation organizations submitting written comments to the Task Force. These submissions were shared with the whole Task Force, and several extended meetings were held to carefully consider and incorporate the feedback. The Task Force unanimously approved the final version of the Model Standards in May 2025.

Since then, the Standards have received formal endorsement from several leading organizations, including AFCC, ACR, APFM, the Council of the ABA Section of Family Law, and the Council of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. The Model Standards are currently under consideration for approval by the ABA House of Delegates at its mid-year meeting in February 2026. 

The 2000 Model Standards had many strengths, namely its core areas, its short and concise format, and its focus on providing guidance without giving how-to direction. The current Model Standards are meant to add to those strengths without departing from them.

The revised Model Standards address and acknowledge the evolving understanding among practitioners regarding informed decision-making, distinguished from self-determination. It reorganized the individual standards into a linear format, commencing with self-determination, followed by informed decision-making, and then initial education of parties.  Perspectives on the capacity to mediate have evolved over time. In response, these Model Standards address barriers that may challenge or prevent full participation in the mediation process, as well as modifications that can be made to the process to ensure accessibility.

One notable omission in the 2000 Model Standards was the absence of guidance related to the use of technology and online dispute resolution in mediation. Over the past twenty-five years, technological advancement has emerged as one of the most transformative forces in the field, an evolution significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this shift, the revised Model Standards incorporate flexible, adaptive language designed to address current digital practices and remain relevant as new technologies continue to emerge.

While the 2000 Model Standards addressed domestic violence and child abuse in two distinct standards, the understanding of these issues has evolved significantly. In recognition of this progress, the revised Model Standards adopt the more inclusive and nuanced terms “domestic abuse” and “child maltreatment.” Additionally, the updated Model Standards emphasize the importance of identifying barriers that may impede meaningful participation in mediation. Rather than relying on categorical labels, they encourage mediators to attend to specific participant behaviors that may affect the safety and suitability of the mediation process for each family. 

Additional enhancements to the updated Model Standards include a termination standard that outlines expanded grounds for ending the mediation process, a significantly more robust articulation of mediator training and professional competence requirements, and a deeper engagement with the inclusion of the child’s voice in the mediation process.

These Model Standards are the result of extensive discussions and input from across the family mediation community. Like its predecessors, these Model Standards aim to increase public confidence in the mediation profession and provide clear guidance for practitioners. And, like the drafters of the 2000 Model Standards, this Task Force recognizes that these Model Standards are not a final product, and it invites future additions and revisions as mediation evolves. Mediation organizations, judges, legal professionals, mental health practitioners, and the public are encouraged to treat these Standards as a foundation for continued discussion within their jurisdictions, identifying emerging challenges and refining practices in support of fair, effective, and accessible mediation.

I have never worked with a more dedicated group than those involved in this Task Force. I extend my deepest thanks to everyone who contributed, turning this process into an ongoing discussion on the core values of family mediation and consensus-building. Their cooperation and engagement made my role as Reporter truly rewarding. Finally, I am deeply grateful to a core group of outstanding University of Florida Levin College of Law students, Sydney Moran, Hayley McAleese, Elizabeth Rom, Michael Gonzalez, Jacob Orlick, and Philip Kelly, for their invaluable contributions and dedicated support throughout this project.

Click here to see the Model Standards for Family and Divorce Mediation.

Professor Donna Erez-Navot

University of Florida Levin College of Law

Gainesville, Florida

July 2025