Parent Coordination is a relatively new pathway to peaceful resolution in cases that seem hopelessly locked in litigation and discord.  A Parent Coordinator can be either a mental health professional, an attorney, or a member of the clergy who has received specific training beyond their professional degrees, including mediation training, family systems training, and extended domestic violence education.  In Miami-Dade County, there is an additional county-specific training for Parent Coordinators as well.

  A Parent Coordinator is given a very special role in the context of a family law case. Specifically, a Parent Coordinator is typically assigned when parents become so highly conflicted that engaging in protracted litigation is no longer helpful and has begun to negatively impact their children.  Their Parent Coordinator is typically assigned to their case for a period of 24 months, and she is given some quasi-judicial powers, usually to make small decisions regarding the minor children that will take up much of the Court’s time and the parents’ resources than is warranted by the nature of the issue itself. 

  As a Parent Coordinator, Rebecca works very hard to ensure that the parents feel empowered to make decisions and learn to begin to work together for the best interest of their children.  Rebecca will work with each parent separately and will also conduct joint meetings, with specific agendas and rules of conduct so that the parents in these cases can stay on task and create a new normal, one in which they can both say to their child, “We made some decisions together for you.”