David Sutton Mediation Service

We were recommended to David Sutton by our couples counselor, with whom we had worked for several years, as well as our attorneys, and even a couple of friends. It seems like David has mediated the divorce for a bunch of people in Marin and SF as I frequently hear his name from people when I ask them about their divorce. Everyone I have talked to seems to say, more or less, similar things, and those things reflect our experience with David. David is kind but firm, and although he will give you the opportunity to express your feelings and get your emotional thoughts out on the table, he makes it clear that he is not doing couples counseling but that he wants to make sure everyone feels heard and that any destructive, but un-discussed, conflicts are addressed so that, when he is finished working with you, you are more likely to get along as co-parents. It only took us three sessions to negotiate all of the issues in our divorce and, although it was not fun, David kept us focused on the task, did not waste our time and money, and even made us laugh a bit. I have to say, after what my ex-wife and I had been through before we met David, it was actually pretty nice to laugh with her again and remember that we have a lot in common and that we don't have to be hostile toward one another. David was very skilled in explaining the law to us and in negotiating a comprehensive settlement and, I have to say, I don't know where we would have been without his thoughtful advice. more

David Sutton was recommended to us by several of our friends who got divorced. At first, my wife and I were having our lawyers negotiate directly with eachother. It seemed that were creating more conflict than my wife and I had when we started. So, we decided to try mediation. David helped immediately by meeting with us, helping us work out a game plan on how to reach a settlement and, also, he helped our attorneys work more effectively by limiting their conflicts with eachother. Both my wife and I trusted David and, issues that had been taking months and months for our attorneys to resolve, were worked out by David in a matter of weeks. The other thing we liked about David is he kept his eye on how all of these issues would effect our children and he has helped us with not just the financial issues but our child custody issues as well. Aside from being a lawyer, he has been a therapist for teenagers as well and gave us insight about how to help our kids through this painful process. In short, David saved us a lot of time, heartache and money and we could not more highly recommend him. Eric Robinson more

David, who is both a lawyer and a social worker, saved my family from a disaster. Like many divorcing parents, we were at each others' throats and could not see clearly about what our kids needed. David calmed our situation down, helped us move our focus to our children's needs, and resolved our case in an affordable way. My ex and I now attend kid events together and we look back at those times of conflict and thank our lucky stars that David forced us to take back control of our family's destiny. He pissed us both off, on occasion, because he does not hide the ball. However, we realized it was tough love and that he was just trying to protect each of us, and our sweet children, from ourselves. I will always be thankful to David. more

David Sutton was our divorce mediator during a very difficult and painful time. He immediately calmed my wife and I down and and provided us with a safe structure in which to discuss our custody and financial issues and come up with fair resolutions. I did not always like what David had to say because, to be truthful, sometimes what I wanted was not what was best for our family. However, David called a spade a spade with both of us and his willingness to be direct allowed my wife and I to know that we would hear the truth from a neutral place that was intended to help our WHOLE family. David is very smart and creative and is able to craft settlements that our own divorce attorneys told us would not be available if we had fought our case in court litigation. I have many friends and fellow church members who have used David to mediate their divorces and they all say, more or less, the same thing. David is skilled, straightforward and creative in a way that can save a lot of time and conflict. Pros: Very Professional, Creative and Straightforward Cons: Wish We Had Met Him Before Our Marriage Failed more

David helped my husband and I resolve very difficult and emotional issues in a cost-effective and kind manner. We could barely sit in the same room with each other prior to entering into mediation with David. However, David helped us see things from the other person's point of view and then led us toward a global settlement that was win-win for both of this. Because of David's skillful and intuitive skills we now attend child events together, cover for each other with the kids and communicate regularly about how to best care for our children. David truly saved us from what could have been a disaster for our family. Pros: Knowledgement, Thoughtful and Professional more

We entered into a mediation with Mr. Sutton who immediately began to psych us both out during the HARDEST TIME IN OUR LIVES, while we were dissolving our 20 year marriage. Mr. Sutton was not knowledgeable about the financial issues in a long-term marriage with young children and abused his position of trust to establish a huge distrust between my ex-husband and I. David Sutton was flirtatious to me in private conversations on the telephone that did not include my husband. He also provided me with erroneous information about what I could expect financially even though I had been a stay-at-home mother for 15 years. He made me believe that I should settle for much less money than I was legally entitled to. He also pretended to befriend my ex husband in a very covert and insidious way leading me to believe that they were colluding behind me. more