Offering Perspective and Insight as a Family Law Neutral
"The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution." - Bertrand Russell
The earlier a family law case resolves the less damage to future relationships, and generally speaking the less stress, delay and cost. For custody issues, there is also some evidence that parents who negotiate a parenting agreement return to Court after their initial case is done much less frequently than those who obtained a formal custody evaluation.
The Minnesota Court system has a policy of promoting early resolution of family law cases. After you file your family law case with the Court, in many Minnesota counties, you may find yourself scheduled for an Initial Case Management Conference (ICMC). At that ICMC, a judge will discuss a plan to develop and resolve your case with both parties and their attorneys.
You may be offered the opportunity to participate in Social Early Neutral Evaluation (SENE) or Financial Early Neutral Evaluation (FENE). SENE addresses custody and parenting issues. FENE addresses child support, spousal maintenance, and property division.
Both SENE and FENE occur before either side has brought any motions or used formal Court rules to obtain information from the other side (called discovery). The neutral will meet with the parties and their attorneys, listen to the facts, perspectives and proposed solutions of each side, and give an opinion as to what the neutral believes would be the most likely outcome if the case were tried on the facts then known. This is the evaluative phase of an SENE or FENE.
Then the parties and their attorneys have a chance to discuss settlement. This facilitative phase of SENE or FENE looks somewhat like a mediation. The parties may be in the same room together. They may be in separate rooms. It is the job of the evaluator at this point to assist the parties in reaching agreement. It is not the job of the evaluator to decide the case, however. If you need a decision, you may wish to consider arbitration or using your family law lawyer for a trial or evidentiary hearing instead.
Sometimes parties prefer to delay a neutral case evaluation until they have used discovery to obtain information and have analyzed it. In this situation, they have the option of a Moderated Settlement Conference which is like a late stage neutral evaluation. In some cases where I have served as the neutral for a Moderated Settlement Conference, the parties were on the verge of trial, and we used the actual trial exhibits in discussing the case.
I was a member of the first FENE panel of evaluators in the Hennepin County Early Case Management Pilot Project, and am still doing both Court-ordered and private ENEs as a family law neutral.
In addition, in cases where I am representing a party, I help my clients assess whether ENE is an appropriate choice of process and prepare the case and my client for the ENE session(s).
Schedule a Free Initial Consultation
To arrange a no-cost, no-obligation initial consultation about financial early neutral evaluations or any other Minnesota family law concern, call my Burnsville law firm locally at 952-641-7455 or toll free at 866-919-7417. You can also arrange a meeting via the online contact form.
