Triaging and Mediating to Meet the Needs of Families Under The Family Dispute Resolution (Pilot Project) Act of Manitoba

Abstract

The Family Dispute Resolution (Pilot Project) Act of Manitoba (“FDRA”) creates a three-year pilot project which will mandate the resolution of certain family disputes outside of the courts. Under the FDRA, “resolution officers” will be responsible for triaging families into these alternative resources. Currently, without supplementary regulations, the FDRA provides insufficient guidance to resolution officers to enable them to conduct this triaging role effectively. This is problematic as triaging is the first major step in the FDRA process and will set the course for the parties’ entire dispute resolution experience under the new scheme. Given the importance of this step, and the likelihood that mediation will be one of the primary processes used to resolve disputes under the FDRA, I have attempted to create enhanced guidelines to help resolution officers match parties to the optimal type of mediation to fit their particular needs. These guidelines, which can hopefully help to inform the future drafting of regulations to the FDRA, were informed by both the mediation literature and the results of qualitative interviews which I conducted with some of Manitoba’s most knowledgeable family mediators. Ultimately, I outline several factors which can impact the resolution of family disputes through mediation, and which must therefore inform the triaging decisions of resolution officers. I also argue that resolution officers should be required to receive specific professional mediation designations, and that to facilitate the most successful implementation of the FDRA, the government should not only take the insights from my research into consideration but should also commit to further consultations with our province’s family mediators and other ADR professionals.