Parenting Coordination

Parenting coordination is a child-focused dispute resolution process for separated families which helps to resolve issues about the implementation and interpretation of orders and agreements on parenting issues. Parenting coordinators are experienced family law lawyers and mediators, counsellors, social workers and psychologists.

This chapter provides a brief introduction to parenting coordination, an overview overview of the process and links to some additional resources on parenting coordination.

Introduction

Parenting coordination uses both mediation and arbitration to resolve disputes about parenting issues as they arise from time to time, once the parents have reached a final order or agreement dealing with custody and guardianship of and access to their children.

The parenting coordinator is a family law lawyer or a mental health professional whom the parents hire on a long-term basis, usually for not less than six months and not more than two years. Parenting coordination is only useful for parents who, despite the formal resolution of their issues, seem to always find themselves fighting about parenting issues.

Once the parenting coordinator has been retained, either parent may ask the parenting coordinator to resolve a dispute. The parent with the issue will contact the parenting coordinator and explain the problem and his or her preferred solution. The parenting coordinator will discuss the problem with the other parent to get his or her prespective on the issue and will then work with both parents to find a resolution everyone can agree to. If, however, the parents can't reach agreement or if the issue is very urgent, the parenting coordinator may arbitrate the dispute and impose a resolution.

This process will repeat whenever a parent has a dispute which needs to be resolved.

What Parenting Coordination Deals With

Parenting coordination addresses how final orders and agreements about parenting issues are interpreted and implemented. Although parenting coordinators also have the authority to make minor, usually temporary, changes to those orders and agreements, parenting coordinators do not have the ability to make permanent or major changes about important issues like custody or guardianship. Parenting coordinators can also deal with minor, usually temporary, issues that aren't covered by an order or agreement, like settling the arrangements for a special event or resolving a schooling problems.

What Parenting Coordination Might Deal With

Parenting coordination usually does not deal with child support or children's special expenses, however if the parents and the parenting coordinator agree, the parenting coordinator may assist the parents with things like:

reviews of child support, where the review is required by an order or agreement; deciding which expenses qualify as a special expenses; and, determining the amount of each parent's contribution to the children's special expenses. Many parenting coordinators won't address these issues. The parenting coordinators most likely to agree to address them are those parenting coordinators who are also family law lawyers.

What Parenting Coordination Won't Deal With

Parenting coordination cannot help with the division of property.

Parenting coordination cannot help with a person's entitlement to receive spousal support, problems with the payment of spousal support or changing an order or agreement about spousal support.

Parenting coordination cannot make orders about custody or guardianship, or change orders and agreements about custody or guardianship.

Overview

Parenting coordinators are hired by the parent's agreement or a court order. The agreement or order should specify who is being appointed as parenting coordinator; a list a of parenting coordinators is available at the website of BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society.

The parents and their parenting coordinator will sign a parenting coordination agreement that talks about the scope of the parenting coordinator's services and authority, how parenting problems will be addressed, and how the parents will handle paying the coordinator's fees. (In general, the parenting coordinator's fees will be split equally between the parents, unless they agree otherwise or the parenting coordinator has a good reason to assign responsibility for a certain amount of fees to a particular parent.) It is always helpful if the key terms of the parenting coordination agreement are set out in the order or agreement appointing the parenting coordinator, including:

the scope of the issues the parenting coordinator may address; any special issues the parents need the parenting coordinator to address; a description of the dispute resolution process, including the parenting coordinator's ability arbitrate a dispute in the event consensus cannot be reached; confirming that the parenting coordination process is not confidential; the duration of the parenting coordinator's contract; and, the circumstances in which the parenting coordinator can withdraw from a case. The parents must each then pay their share of the parenting coordinator's retainer. Like with a lawyer, the retainers paid to the parenting coordinator act as security for his or her future bills; when those bills are issued, the parenting coordinator will pay him- or herself with the retainer. Some parenting coordinator's will also ask for an addditional deposit. This money is held in reserve to enable the parenting coordinator to finish dealing with a problem in the event that a parent's retainer runs out in the middle of a dispute and the parent refuses to provide an additional retainer.

Next, the parenting coordinator will meet separately with each parent to explain the process in more depth and get a detailed history of the parents' relationship and litigation. Depending on the age of the children, the parenting coordinator may also want to interview the children as well.

Once these matters have been taken care of, either parent can bring a parenting problem to the parenting coordinator when a dispute arises. Parenting coordinators will often deal with dozens of these disputes during their retainer.

Where there is a problem, the parenting coordinator will listen to the parenting raising the issue and then contact the other parent to get his or her take on things. Depending on the nature of the parents and the nature of the problem, the parenting coordinator may attempt to mediate a resolution between the parents or may arbitrate the dispute. If mediation is required, the parenting coordinator may:

meet with the parents separately or together about the issue; interview the children to get their input on the issue; speak to the children's counsellors, doctors, teachers, instructors or coaches; or, speak to any other third party who may have helpful information about the issue. Parenting coordinators only arbitrate as a last resort, usually because the problem is urgent and must be dealt with quickly or because mediation has failed to reach an agreement. Where arbitration is required, the parenting coordinator will provide the parents with a written statement of his or her decision and the reasons for that decision.

While the parenting coordinator will always try to mediate an agreement before making a decision, the steps the parenting coordinator takes to resolve a problem will change depending on the nature of the dispute and the urgency with which resolution must be reached.

At the end of the parenting coordinator's retainer, all parties (the parents and the parenting coordinator) must agree to renew the parenting coodination agreement.

Resources

More information about parenting coordination is available at the websites of the BC Parenting Coordinators Roster Society and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. The BC roster has drawn its guidelines from the AFCC's Guidelines for Parenting Coordination (PDF) which are worth reviewing.

The BC roster is developing a model parenting coordination agreement. This agreement will be available here for download when it is released by the roster.