Is Mediation Required in St. Louis City?
Yes, where child custody or visitation is a genuine and substantial issue, and the mediator is a Deputy Juvenile Officer employed by the court rather than a private neutral you choose and pay.
That second half is what almost nobody arriving from a national article knows, and it is the biggest single difference between the 22nd Judicial Circuit and the three courthouses nearest to it.
Local Rule 68.7 of the 22nd Judicial Circuit, titled Investigations and Mediation, provides that “in each action in which child custody or visitation is a genuine and substantial issue, the parties and, where appropriate, each minor child shall present themselves to a Deputy Juvenile Officer assigned to the Domestic Relations Unit of the Family Court for mediation of any issues of child custody or visitation.”
Three things are doing work in that sentence. A threshold, being genuine and substantial. A named office, being the Domestic Relations Unit. And a subject matter limit, being custody and visitation.
Which version of the rules this was read from. The 22nd Circuit set published under a filename identifying it as effective 27 May 2025. The document carries no printed effective date in its own pages, so that date comes from the filename rather than the text. Confirm the current rule set directly before relying on any of this.
What Does Mandatory Actually Cover in the City?
Custody and visitation are compelled. Child support, maintenance and property division are available on request and are not compelled. That split is routinely overstated in both directions.
Local Rule 68.7.3 provides that “the parties are also permitted, but not required, to request Mediation assistance relative to child support, maintenance and property division in domestic relations and paternity cases.” Rule 68.7.4 then describes mediation as the process by which a Deputy Juvenile Officer, “as neutral mediator, assists the parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement on issues of child custody, visitation, child support, maintenance and property division.”
Read those two together. The financial issues sit inside what the Deputy Juvenile Officer is authorized to mediate. They are simply not forced onto the calendar. Nothing happens on the money unless somebody asks for it.
For an owner, a professional, or anyone whose marital estate carries a business, real estate or retirement accounts, that is a different posture from the county next door, where the local rule reaches maintenance and property division as a matter of course. In mediation in St. Louis City, whether the financial half of your case is mediated at all is a decision rather than a default. Our page on property and asset division covers what is being divided, and our FAQ on dividing marital property covers why equitable has never meant equal under Section 452.330.1 RSMo.
What Does Genuine and Substantial Mean?
It is a threshold the neighbouring circuits do not use, and the rule does not define it.
St. Charles County and Jefferson County both trigger on a case involving contested issues of custody or visitation. The City rule instead asks whether custody or visitation “is a genuine and substantial issue,” and that wording carries through Local Rule 68.7.1 and 68.7.2.
We are not going to tell you how a particular judge would read those words, and be wary of any page that does. What is worth knowing is that the City’s language differs from the language a few miles away, that the difference sits on the face of the published rules, and that what your pleadings put in dispute is the material the threshold gets applied to. Our child custody practice covers how those disputes are built, and our FAQ on parenting plans covers the document the process is aimed at producing.
Who Is the Deputy Juvenile Officer?
Court staff, assigned to the Domestic Relations Unit of the Family Court, and not an attorney. The rule says so in its own words.
Local Rule 68.7.4 provides that mediation “shall be conducted, to the extent practicable, in accordance with the ABA Standards of Practice for Lawyer Mediators in Family Disputes but recognizing that the mediator is a Deputy Juvenile Officer and not an attorney.” The same paragraph describes the role, which is that the mediator “should aid the parties in identifying the issues, reducing misunderstandings, clarifying priorities, exploring areas of compromise and finding points of agreement.”
Three consequences follow, and all three are practical rather than technical.
- You are not selecting the mediator. In St. Charles County the parties choose from a court maintained list. Here the assignment comes from the court’s own unit, so the usual conversation about which neutral fits the case does not happen
- The mediator is not your lawyer and is not anybody’s lawyer. A neutral helps two people communicate. A neutral does not protect one person’s legal position, and nothing said in that room substitutes for advice about what you are giving up
- The orientation is built around children. The role as the rule describes it is aimed at custody and visitation, which fits a parenting dispute and is a different proposition for a contested business valuation
Because the assignment is internal to the court, the scheduling and the format are the court’s to set rather than yours to negotiate. Treat the appointment as a court date, because that is how the rule treats it. That is the practical difference mediation in St. Louis City carries over the private process most articles describe.
Does the Mediator Have to Meet the Rule 88.05 Qualifications?
Missouri’s statewide qualification rule offers two routes, and only one of them requires a law license.
Rule 88.05 provides that a mediator performing mediation in domestic relations and paternity cases under Rule 88 shall have stated by affidavit that he or she “is an attorney or a person who possesses a graduate degree in a field that includes the study of psychiatry, psychology, social work, counseling, or other behavioral science substantially related to marriage and family interpersonal relationships,” and has received “a minimum of 20 hours of child custody mediation training in a program approved by the court that shall include a component of training covering violence and power imbalance issues.”
Note the word or. A mediator who is not an attorney is not automatically outside the rule, because the behavioral science route exists and a Deputy Juvenile Officer in a Domestic Relations Unit is the kind of role that route contemplates. The local rule’s statement that the mediator is not an attorney describes who the mediator is, not a claim that the qualification rule was set aside. Which route an individual mediator qualified under is a fair question to put to the Domestic Relations Unit, and a more useful one than most people think to ask.
Is Mediation in St. Louis City Free?
Mediation conducted by the Domestic Relations Unit does not have a cost. If a private mediator is used, then their normal rates apply.
Local Rule 68.7 contains no fee, cost or charge provision of any kind. The circuit’s published court cost information lists filing deposits and sheriff’s fees and does not identify a mediation charge. The Family Court’s own public mediation materials describe the service without stating a price.
So the accurate statement is narrow. No fee schedule for Deputy Juvenile Officer mediation appears in the local rules, in the circuit’s published costs, or in the public Family Court materials reviewed for this page. That is not the same as a finding that it is free, and anyone who tells you flatly that it costs nothing is telling you something they cannot source.
If cost is part of your decision, ask the Family Court. Then ask your own attorney the question that actually moves the number, which is what preparation and attorney time will cost. Note too that Section 452.372.3 RSMo contemplates a court ordered program “may be paid for by the parties in a proportion to be determined by the court,” so a statute reaching this kind of program does anticipate a cost even where a local rule is silent.
Is Mediation in St. Louis City Confidential?
The local rule gives you inadmissibility, which is narrower than the confidentiality the statewide Supreme Court rule gives. For a professional or a business owner this is the most important paragraph on the page.
Local Rule 68.7.6 provides that “all statements by the parties or a minor child during mediation conducted pursuant to this Rule shall constitute statements made as part of settlement negotiations and, therefore, shall be inadmissible at any evidentiary hearing.”
Inadmissible at a hearing. That is the whole of what the sentence says.
What Does Rule 88.08 Add That the Local Rule Does Not?
Two things, and both reach further than admissibility.
Rule 88.08(a) provides that mediation proceedings “shall be regarded as settlement proceedings” and that a communication relating to the subject matter made during the mediation “shall be a confidential communication,” which is then not admissible as evidence and not subject to discovery. Discovery, not only the hearing. Rule 88.08(b) then provides that no person who serves as a mediator “shall be subpoenaed or otherwise compelled to disclose any matter disclosed in the process of setting up or conducting the mediation.”
Neither of those protections appears in the City rule’s own text. Local Rule 68.8.1 does make certain files and written records confidential, but by its own words that provision attaches to records prepared under Rule 68.7.1, which is the investigation and report function rather than the mediation function running through 68.7.2 to 68.7.7.
We are describing what two rule texts say. We are not predicting how a court would resolve the relationship between a local rule and a Supreme Court rule, and nobody honestly can. The practical takeaway is unglamorous. If confidentiality is a material part of why you would say something in mediation in St. Louis City, raise it with your own attorney before the appointment rather than afterwards. Rule 88.08(a) also carries a limit worth knowing on any view, which is that no fact independently discoverable becomes immune from discovery merely because it was mentioned in a confidential communication.
What Happens If You Do Not Participate?
The rule provides for sanctions, and it borrows the discovery sanctions rule to do it.
Local Rule 68.7.7 states that “failure of any party to comply with this Rule shall warrant imposition of sanctions upon the request of any party or on the Court’s own motion,” and that in ordering sanctions “the Court shall be guided by the provisions of Supreme Court Rule 61.01.”
That cross reference is the part to read twice. Rule 61.01 is the failure to make discovery rule, and the menu it authorizes reaches orders barring a disobedient party from supporting or opposing designated claims, striking pleadings, staying proceedings, dismissal or a judgment by default, contempt, and an order to pay reasonable expenses including attorney fees.
Missing an appointment is therefore not a scheduling problem. It is a compliance problem sitting on a rule with real consequences attached, and saying so is not a prediction about any judge. It is what the local rule chose to attach itself to.
Can You End Mediation After Two Hours?
Under the statewide rule yes, but it is a right that attaches after you have participated, not a way to skip the appointment.
Rule 88.07(a) is one sentence. “At any time after two hours of mediation either party may terminate mediation ordered under Rule 88.04.”
Two limits are built into those words. The clock runs on mediation actually conducted, and the right is expressed as to mediation ordered under Rule 88.04, the statewide provision letting a court order mediation of any contested issue in a domestic relations or paternity case. Rule 88.04 also encourages circuits to adopt local mediation rules, which is the structure mediation in St. Louis City sits inside.
Appearing and then ending the session is a different act from not appearing. One is the rule working as written. The other is what Rule 68.7.7 addresses.
Does the City Rule Excuse Mediation for Domestic Violence?
Local Rule 68.7 contains no express domestic violence exemption on its face. All seven paragraphs were read. There is no reference to domestic violence, abuse, an imbalance of negotiating power, waiver, exemption or an opt out.
That is a real difference from St. Louis County, whose local rule names domestic violence and abuse as possible good cause in two separate places. It does not follow that nothing is available. Three provisions sit outside the local rule and reach this.
- The statute. Section 452.372.2 RSMo provides that in cases involving custody or visitation issues the court may order alternative dispute resolution “except for good cause shown,” and defines good cause as including but not limited to “a finding of domestic violence or abuse as determined by a court with jurisdiction after all parties have received notice and an opportunity to be heard.” Note the shape of that, being a finding made after notice and a hearing rather than an assertion made at the appointment
- The mediator’s own duty to stop. Rule 88.07(b) provides that the mediator “shall terminate mediation” whenever the mediator believes continuation “would harm or prejudice one or more of the parties or the children,” or that the willingness of any party to participate meaningfully is so lacking that a reasonable agreement is unlikely. That is a mandatory duty on the mediator rather than a request the parties have to make
- The threshold itself. The rule only reaches cases where custody or visitation is a genuine and substantial issue, which is a limit of a different kind but a limit all the same
The Rule 88.05 training requirement also expressly includes “a component of training covering violence and power imbalance issues,” a small provision that tells you the drafters had this in view.
Raise a safety concern with an attorney before an appointment is scheduled rather than at it. Our page on when divorce mediation may not be your best option covers the circumstances that make it a poor fit, and our domestic violence practice covers the orders that exist independently of any of this.
When Does Anything Agreed in Mediation Become Binding?
Not in the room, and not when everybody nods.
Rule 88.08(c) provides that “all mediations shall be non-binding unless the parties enter into a written agreement as provided in Rule 88.08(d),” and that “a written agreement shall be binding to the extent not prohibited by law.”
Rule 88.06(c) adds the step people skip. The mediator “shall make a written summary of any understanding reached by the parties,” provides a copy to the parties and their attorneys, and “shall advise each party in writing to obtain legal assistance in drafting any agreement or for reviewing any agreement drafted by the other party.” Nothing binds until it is reduced to writing, signed, and approved by the court.
Then the court applies a standard that favours what you negotiated. Section 452.325.2 RSMo provides that the terms of a separation agreement, “except terms providing for the custody, support, and visitation of children,” are binding upon the court unless it finds the agreement unconscionable after considering the economic circumstances of the parties and any other relevant evidence.
Unconscionable is a far lower bar than the just standard applied when a court divides property itself under Section 452.330.1 RSMo. The distance between those two words is the strongest practical argument for treating mediation in St. Louis City as an opportunity rather than an obstacle, and it is why the hour spent reading the draft before signing is usually the most valuable hour in the case. Our mediation practice page covers how we work on both sides of that.
What Does the City Rule Not Decide?
Four things, and each one gets confused with it.
It does not decide whether your case settles. The rule compels attendance and a process, not agreement, and Rule 88.03 says so directly, providing that an agreement reached by the parties “is to be based on the decisions of the parties and not the decisions of the mediator.”
It does not decide your financial issues, which stay outside the mandate unless somebody requests them under Rule 68.7.3, and the numbers behind them still have to be assembled. Our FAQ on the statement of income and expenses covers the document that does that work.
And it does not decide maintenance, which runs on its own analysis regardless of what was discussed. Our spousal maintenance page covers that.
Who Can Help With Mediation in St. Louis City?
The useful preparation for a City appointment is not a speech. It is knowing which of your issues the appointment actually reaches, what your own numbers are before anybody asks, and what protection the room does and does not carry.
Bardol Law Firm practices only family law, in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, St. Charles County and Jefferson County, and we work on both halves of this. Preparing a case so a mandatory appointment produces something usable, and reading what came out of one before it becomes a judgment. You can read more about our mediation practice, our work for business owners, our high net worth divorce practice, and the rest of our family law questions and answers.
You should not have to chase your attorney for a straight answer with a court appointment already on the calendar. Every client here has a named paralegal on the file, and we generally return calls within one business day.
Family Law, Simplified.
If your case is filed in the City and a mediation appointment has been set, that is the conversation worth having first. Contact Bardol Law Firm or call 314.918.0100.
This page is general information about Missouri law and is not legal advice. It was written from the 22nd Circuit local rule set published under a filename identifying it as effective 27 May 2025, which carries no printed effective date in its text, and local rules change without notice, so confirm the current rules directly. Every case turns on its own facts. The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.