Parent Coordination

The DePalo Law Firm is pleased to announce that we are now offering parent coordination services. Both myself and my associate, Joanna DeLauro, are certified parent coordinators. Parent coordination is a form of dispute resolution for high conflict divorce cases. It is designed for parents who have an inability to co-parent, and often have difficulty communicating about, and cooperating in the care of their children. It is not therapy.

Parent coordination is a response to a growing number of children caught in the middle of custody battles and post-divorce litigation. It is an innovative approach which has been repeatedly recommended as a means to deal with high conflict couples, and families suffering from difficulties in domestic relations proceedings before the Court. In a broader sense, a parent coordinator can be viewed as a high conflict manager of the family.

There are three aspects with regard to parental coordination:

The first aspect is education whereby they educate the parents regarding the impact of parental conflict on the children. The parent coordinator teaches parents about anger management, communication, and negotiation skills in dealing with children’s issues and divorce. A parent coordinator assists parents in shifting the roles from former partners to co-parents, and helps parents identify their contribution to conflict.

The second aspect is to meditate and facilitate parental concerns in order to reach a mutually satisfying resolution that is in the child’s best interests, and then appropriate monitoring.

The third is the parent coordinator monitors. A parent coordinator helps keep track of timesharing arrangements, encourages both parents to maintain an ongoing relationship with the children, records and monitors family progress and compliance, consults with all professionals involved with the family.

As the law continues to move towards joint custody, shared parenting agreements and joint decision making, along with the fact that psychological literature has determined that it is best for a child to have both parents actively involved in their lives, in most cases, use of a parent coordinator can greatly aid parents in achieving that goal. It is my hope that the use of parent coordination will aid the Court, attorneys and litigants to be able to maintain and successfully co-parent.

Please email or call our office to discuss if parental coordination is right for you.