Mediation

Mediation & Dispute Resolution

Most Florida family law cases are required to go through mediation before trial. Having a Board Certified specialist prepare and advocate for you at that table is not just an advantage — it is often the difference between resolving your case and ending up in a costly, time-consuming trial.

Allyson Hughes is one of fewer than 1,600 attorneys in the United States elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. Board Certified in Marital and Family Law since 1998. When you walk into that mediation session, you want someone at your side who has mastered both the law and the negotiating table.

Why mediation

Litigation is expensive, time consuming, and adversarial by design. It puts decisions about your children, your assets, and your future in the hands of a judge who has never met your family. Mediation keeps those decisions where they belong — with you.

In Florida, mediation is mandatory before most contested matters proceed to trial. That is not a hurdle. It is an opportunity. The parties who arrive prepared, with the right counsel and the right experts, resolve their cases at mediation. The parties who don’t end up in a multi-day trial.

Preparation is everything

The key to resolving a case at mediation is preparation. Preparing for mediation is often as extensive as preparing for trial. Depending on the complexity of your case, the right preparation may require a forensic accountant, a vocational expert, a Guardian ad Litem, or a psychologist who has conducted a Parenting Plan Evaluation.

Allyson Hughes will assess what resources your case requires and ensure that when you walk into that mediation session you are positioned to reach a resolution — not forced into a trial you could have avoided.

What mediation covers

Florida divorce mediation addresses the full scope of marital dissolution including equitable distribution of assets and liabilities, business and professional practice valuation, parenting plans and time-sharing frameworks, child support under the § 61.30 Income Shares Model, and alimony and spousal support obligations under Florida’s reformed durational framework.

For high-asset estates involving equine property, breeding operations, or horse farms, mediation offers a particular advantage — privacy. The equestrian community in Florida is small and interconnected. What happens in a courtroom becomes public record. What happens in mediation stays there.

The equestrian community

For clients in the Ocala, World Equestrian Center, and broader Florida horse community, mediation is frequently the right path. Relationships in that world — between trainers, breeders, farm managers, and competitors — outlast marriages. Litigation burns those relationships. Mediation preserves them.

Allyson Hughes understands this community from the inside. As a former Morgan Horse champion who continues to ride, train, and own horses, she brings firsthand knowledge to equine asset mediation that no generalist mediator can match.