Is mediation required for divorce in Minnesota?

ADR is a family of processes. Under Rule 114.04(b), once a case is served, the two of you are supposed to promptly confer about which process to use and who the neutral will be. If you agree, the court should order that process. If you can't agree, the court must order a non-binding one, and it sets a deadline for finishing it.

Besides mediation, Minnesota family courts use a few processes you may hear about:

• Social Early Neutral Evaluation (SENE) for custody and parenting time, usually with a team of two neutrals.
• Financial Early Neutral Evaluation (FENE) for support, property, and debts.
• Moderated Settlement Conferences later in a case, where a neutral offers evaluative impressions.

Those are defined in Rule 310.03, and the courts explain them on their Early Case Management page. Many counties start with an Initial Case Management Conference, where the judicial officer explains these options.

This part matters more than the rule itself. The court shall not require ADR, or mediation, when:

• There's domestic abuse. Rule 310.01(b) bars requiring a facilitative process when one party claims to be a victim of domestic abuse by the other, or the court finds probable cause of physical abuse or threats. Minn. Stat. § 518.619, subd. 2 and § 518.1705, subd. 6 say similar things for custody and parenting plans.
• You already tried and hit an impasse on the same issues in a Rule 114 process (Rule 310.01(c)).
• You can't afford it and free or low-cost ADR isn't available, including if you qualify for a filing-fee waiver (Rule 114.01(c)).
• The case type is excluded, such as Domestic Abuse Act cases, contempt actions, and some support cases where the county child support agency is involved (Rule 310.01(a)).

If you're afraid of your spouse, nothing on this page is a reason to be in a session with them. A licensed Minnesota attorney or a domestic abuse advocate can talk with you about your situation.

When custody or parenting time is contested, § 518.619 says the matter may be set for mediation, before, during, or after a hearing is scheduled. The mediator has no power to force a settlement. Separately, § 518.157, subd. 3 requires parents who haven't agreed on custody or a schedule to take an eight-hour parent education program, and tells the court to notify you of the option to work it out through private mediation.

I walk through what that looks like in what happens in child custody mediation in Minnesota.

Once a case is in court, ADR is usually part of it, subject to the exceptions above. Couples who choose mediation themselves, before filing, get to pick the process, the person, and the pace rather than leaving those to a scheduling order.

With Flannel People Mediation it's $1,695 per person for one prepared 3-hour Zoom session, and it's usually one session. You still file with the court afterward; mediation doesn't replace that part.