Mediation in Adoption and Termination of Parental Rights Cases

Mediation is required by Order of the the Supreme Court of South Carolina to occur in the majority of legal actions filed in South Carolina prior to being able to request a final hearing. This is true in Family Court as well - and still true in termination of parental rights and adoption cases.Often times, lawyers handling these matters (regardless of whether they represent the adoptive parties or the birth parents) ask the Court to waive mediation in these cases because there is very little room for either side to make concessions.For example, in a divorce mediation the parties have a lot of issues to negotiate and thus there are a lot of places for the parties to give and take in order to reach an agreement that resolves the issues in the matter. In a termination of parental rights and adoption matter, the negotiation seems to have more of an all or nothing feel. Either the birth parents agree to consent to the adoption and relinquish their parental rights which allows the adoptive parties to adopt the child, or, the birth parents do not consent to the adoption and the adoptive parties either give up or proceed on with a contested adoption action.  In South Carolina, we do not have a law that permits open adoptions - adoptions where birth parents can have court-ordered rights to continue some involvement in the child's life.Sometimes, there is a middle ground so mediation should probably be explored by parties to these kinds of cases.I recently participated in a mediation in a termination of parental rights and adoption action.  This was a step-parent adoption case so only one parent was in the termination of parental rights seat.  What looked to be a futile effort to satisfy a court requirement to mediate turned into a complete settlement.  After full consideration of the issues - best case/worst case scenarios in a trial and the long term relationships with the child, this parent decided not to pursue retaining parental rights and elected to have the opportunity to send a farewell letter to the child, receive annual photo albums and reports about the child, and for the child to receive contact information in the future if he were to decide to contact his birth parent upon becoming an adult.I think all of the lawyers were a little shocked by the outcome. In this case the adoptive parents were able to adopt and the birth parent retained some connection to the child that is protected by court order. It was a unique resolution to the case instead of a rigid outcome that we so often think of when preparing to mediate these issues.