Originally, we conceptualized that we would replace our ordinary laptops with TabletPC’s. We haven’t simply because we thought it prudent to await the release of (and maybe the first update to) Windows® Vista. As time has passed, we’re not sure we need tablets, although we may wish to try them — to completely eliminate flipcharts. (I still use flipcharts occasionally; my partner Chris frankly does not.)

We primarily use Excel® to craft with our clients an analysis of their families’ marital and separate property, and West-Thomson’s FinPlan®’s DivorcePlanner® to help our clients understand their respective households’ after tax cashflow following divorce given their approach to child support and spousal support. (See Keeping It Real: Mediation’s Power in Spousal Alimony Cases about using such software in family mediation.)

But we often used these tools before. The difference is we now work collaboratively onscreen in real-time directly with our clients and allow them to immediately see visually the impact of differing choices or scenarios in allocating property, debts and income.

We do now use a set of five or six Powerpoint® slides for certain education pieces of our work with clients: something we didn’t do before.

As I have always said, the large screen displays technology won’t transform a poor mediator into an intuitive, artful listener and creative partner; indeed, it might make things worse. But, it powerfully assists the family and divorce mediation process in ways we never expected, by bringing our clients more immediately into the problemsolving and option generation process. And used expertly, it is reasonably seamless and does not erode the intimacy of the mediation process.

Feel free to review the materials from our workshop Turbocharging Your Family Mediation Process (which we just presented at the midyear national conference of the Family Section of the Association for Conflict Resolution in Cape Cod). These include downloadable screenshots and family mediation practice tools and forms.

Larry