Meaning, having your family law inventory prepared — and better yet, exchanging inventories — can make for a far more meaningful mediation. With required disclosures there is little more effort in exchanging inventories and much to be gained. Surprisingly, many lawyers arrive at mediation with no inventories done, much less exchanged.

What the inventory can do for your mediation

• Let the mediator know the property and debt details
• Save time by not having to call or get online with banks and brokerages
• Identify differences in values between the parties
• Enable quickly focusing on the important property details
• Achieve a level of due diligence (which your malpractice carrier will appreciate)
• Have at your/my fingertips all the details of assets and debts that may be required in the MSA and, possibly, a Decree that could be signature-ready at the conclusion of the mediation.

Why do I bring this up?

Because in a significant number of mediations at least one party and their attorney spend an inordinate amount of time trying to locate essential details. Not only is this a delay, but the opposing side is justifiably suspicious of the accuracy of the information you bring to the table in that fashion. A screen shot of the 401k summary is not the same as a full copy of the most recent detailed statement.

Using the family law Inventory

As mentioned in the opening paragraph, exchanging the inventory between the sides in advance is essential. Additionally, most mediators will be grateful to also have it a few days or a week prior to the mediation. As those who have mediated with me know, I will build a comparative spreadsheet for use in the negotiations. An additional sharing possibility is to use my online sharing capability through Txdocs in their Mediator Module. You or your staff — or even your client — can input the details in a format that mirrors the Inventory form in the Texas Family Law Practice Manual. Not only does this save you time, but it gets the information to me early and in a format that can be useful during the mediation.