Your good friend Claire has finally had it with her husband Frank's shenanigans, and after years of fighting and disharmony, Claire decides to finally call it quits and file for a divorce. She has moved to Lansing, Michigan, so the divorce filing is in that area. She comes to you, her longtime legal advisor, and wants your firm to represent her with the caveat that she wants this settled through mediation to avoid the uncertainty, delay, and cost of going to trial.

Claire is desperate and needs this done quickly without waiting for trial, which will take about 2 years in this jurisdiction. The judge who drew the case is Judge Trudy, a very vocal jurist who has a local TV show, which at times takes up a lot of her time, delaying some of the cases on her docket.

Unfortunately, you are not familiar with the family law mediations, so you must find out quickly what you should do to get the matter into mediation before Judge Trudy puts it on the trial docket.

PART ONE:

Conduct research regarding mediation once a complaint for divorce has been filed. Use westlaw to help in finding relevant state statutes, court rules, and other relevant case law within Ingham County, Michigan jurisdiction.

Then, send a memo to Claire indicating what is required regarding court-ordered mediation in that jurisdiction (be sure to include citations for all relevant court rules, statutes, and case law). Include what steps are required to select a mediator, your strategy, if any, in doing so (who you will look for), who will pay for the mediator, when it will occur, and what the rules would be in private mediation. This will all support your memo summarizing the strategies you used in your research.

PART TWO:Claire is wondering if it would be quicker and provide a better outcome to utilize a private mediator. Before the case gets to Judge Trudy, who is sometimes known to wait several months to order the mediation in her court, it might be advantageous to consider this. Be sure to inform Claire of the differences between private and court-ordered mediation. Again, include what steps are required to select a mediator, your strategy, if any, in doing so (who you will look for), who will pay for the mediator, when it will occur, and what the rules would be in private mediation.

Write a memo to Claire guiding her. Be sure to:

1. List the requirements and procedure for both court and private mediation.
2. Compare the advantages to Claire in using either court or private mediation in this case.
3. Categorize what qualifications and experience you would recommend Claire utilize in selecting the mediator in each.
4. Analyze what strategies your firm should employ in representing Claire in each case.
5. Reflect on employed research strategies, including how search terms were refined, choice of databases, range of dates, and identifying experts and sorted to accomplish a task.