The risk of mediating your case without a lawyer is that you will be uninformed or misinformed of the legal rights and remedies available to you.  Lack of information can cause fear and associated emotional resistance to resolution.  Reliance on wrong information can result in “buyer’s remorse” after a binding agreement is done.  It can cause an unfair or inequitable result. 

A mediator does NOT provide legal advice to either party.  As a result, a mediator may not be ethically able to reduce the agreement of self-represented people into final orders ready to present to court. 

Many people feel they can adequately inform themselves, and they want to avoid the costs of involving lawyers on an ongoing basis.  Such people reason that they enter into legal transactions every day of their lives, many of them significant ones.  Why should they be unable to navigate through their divorce, especially if issues are not very complex and there is a mutual interest in reaching an agreement?  I agree there are many informed people, from builders to teachers to doctors, capable of mediating their case without a lawyer. 

Aside from reading and researching legal rights and remedies, it is possible to obtain “unbundled legal services,” in which a lawyer advises or consults with a client on a limited basis.  One model that can work is for a person to obtain legal advice and counseling prior to a mediation or arbitration, and also use the lawyer to implement the agreed resolution through the court system.  There are many variations on this model that can work for an individual situation and limit the cost of a lawyer.   

A mediated agreement can also be made subject to a lawyer's review within a certain time limit. 

Many parenting plan orders provide for disputes under the parenting plan to be resolved by a specified mediator.  If both parties agree, I can serve as the mediator even if I am not specifically named in the parenting plan.  Parties can also agree to use me in future dispute resolution, to provide for continuity based on familiarity with the family. 

Most orders of child support do not provide for disputes to be resolved through mediation.  If both parties agree, child support can be privately mediated or arbitrated.  I have child support calculation software available on my laptop if child support worksheets need to be generated.