Mediation — Resolve It Yourselves, With a Neutral Who Knows How

A judge who has never met you can decide your family’s or your business’s future in a single hearing. Mediation is the alternative: a private, faster, lower-cost process in which you and the other party shape the outcome yourselves, with the help of a neutral mediator. Rice Law offers certified mediation services for family-law and superior-court matters.

In mediation, the mediator is exactly that — neutral. We represent neither party, advise neither, and decide nothing. Our only job is to help both sides reach an agreement they can live with. North Carolina sometimes requires mediation before parties can take a dispute to trial.

Why Parties Choose Mediation

• Settle on terms that fit your needs, rather than a ruling imposed on you
• Reach a resolution faster
• Craft creative solutions a court could not normally order
• Keep private facts out of a public courtroom
• Lower the conflict that testimony between spouses or parties can create
• Trade the risk of an unexpected court decision for an outcome you control
• Save the cost of litigation, expert witnesses, attorney fees, and more

Your Neutral

Mark Spencer Williams is certified by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission as a Certified Family Financial Mediator and a Superior Court Mediator. He has practiced family law and civil litigation for his entire career — experience he brings to the table evenly, reality-testing both sides without ever taking a position or predicting a result for either.

How Mediation Works in North Carolina

Mediation is often required before a contested case goes to trial. When there is active litigation, a successful mediation produces a Mediated Settlement Agreement, which a judge can sign — making it a court order. But you don’t need a lawsuit to mediate: parties can choose, on their own, a private process to resolve family disputes, business conflicts, or contractual disagreements, selecting an impartial facilitator both sides agree on to help them reach informed resolutions on issues such as child custody, child support, marital property division, or contract disputes.

A judge can order parties to attend mediation, but no one can order them to settle. Any agreement must be voluntary. If the parties cannot agree, the case returns to court, where a judge decides it. The mediator never decides the merits and never advises either side.

What We Mediate

In private mediation, the matters we handle include:

• Parenting
• Child support
• Alimony
• Grandparent visitation
• The division of assets
• Allocation of debts
• Breach of contract
• Debt disputes
• Alienation of Affection (Superior Court)
• Criminal Conversation (Superior Court)
• Other Superior Court claims, such as personal injury and auto accidents (Superior Court)

The Mediator’s Role

Mediation is governed by North Carolina General Statute § 7A-38.1 and the rules various courts apply; in family financial cases — equitable distribution, alimony, and child support — it proceeds under the Family Financial Settlement Rules (§ 7A-38.4A), where mediated settlement is the default procedure. The statute and rules address the issues to be mediated, selection of the mediator, the timing and location, the fees involved, and the mediator’s duties. The mediator is a neutral person who encourages and facilitates a resolution of a pending matter. A mediator does not make an award or render a judgment on the merits — and a mediator is not an arbitrator.

Confidential, By Design

What is said in mediation stays in mediation. That confidentiality is what makes candor safe — and lets parties explore options they would never put on the table in open court.

Schedule Your Mediation

If you need a qualified mediator for a family-law or civil dispute in North Carolina, Rice Law can help you and the other party reach a resolution you can both accept. Because the mediator must stay neutral, we first confirm we have no conflict — we cannot mediate any matter involving a current or former client of the firm. We routinely conduct virtual mediations, with the parties and their attorneys participating remotely, and we travel throughout North Carolina. Call (910) 762-3854 or contact us to schedule a mediator or reserve a mediation conference location.