Money, time, stress, and ruined relationships; these are just a few of the typical costs of a prolonged trial. These costs permeate throughout all areas of litigation but they are especially significant in family law, where the parties are related and custody of children is a frequent point of contention. This paper serves as a primer for those seeking to avoid the adversarial process of a trial by utilizing alternative dispute resolution mechanism, specifically settlement. Through the provision of valuable settlement strategic resources, this paper equips a family lawyer with the necessary knowledge and skills to obtain a settlement and avoid the many risks and downfalls of going to trial.

This paper is part of a collection presented at LESA’s 50^th Annual Refresher in Lake Louise from May 7–9^th, 2017.