About Our Mediation Services

Alison Vawter has been a mediator since 2001, and has been a 9th Judicial Circuit Court mediator in Illinois since 2011, assisting many families in resolving their disputes about their children and other matters.

Why Mediation?  And What Is It?

Mediation is a centuries-old way of resolving disputes between people. In the family law context, mediation affords parties with disagreements over children, property, or money the opportunity to sit down with a trained, third-party neutral to try to reach a mutually agreeable solution to the dispute.

You, the mediator, and the opposing party are the only people in the room. You will be allowed to make your points in a calm and respectful atmosphere, and you will be invited to listen to the other party do the same.

It is often said that nobody really wins in Court; the outcome is uncertain, and the emotional and financial costs of the average family law case are significant, and sometimes……staggering.  A judge decides some very fundamental things about your family — including where your child or children sleep, and how often they see their parents.  By contrast, in mediation, you control the outcome.  You give a little to gain, potentially, a lot — the sense that you as parents can work together in the best interest of the family, even though you are no longer together, the re-establishment of what’s best for the children as your lodestar going forward, and an end to the significant financial drain of continued litigation.