Family Mediation Hawaii Helps Divorcing Couples Focus on What’s Best for Kids

2025 SmallBiz Editor’s Choice Award winner: Owner Katie Bennett’s background in law and sociology helps her navigate custody issues.

Katie Bennett knows that navigating a divorce can be emotionally complex, especially when it involves expensive court processes to divide property and, more importantly, to determine child custody.

In those cases, “It should be about what’s best for the child, and that can be challenging,” says Bennett, founder and lead mediator at Family Mediation Hawaii in Honolulu.

Mediation can untangle complicated custody issues and help couples avoid costly and lengthy court trials.

“People still think they need to lawyer up and protect themselves. But mediation can be more effective because we’re hearing both, not just one side of the story,” Bennett says. “The process is about building trust and rapport and helping clients understand you want them to have a better outcome.”

Born and raised in Nu‘uanu Valley, Bennett is a lawyer, holds a master’s degree in sociology from UH Mānoa and has three children. She has taught mediation and regularly mediated for the Hawai‘i Family Court of the First Circuit’s O‘ahu Child Welfare Mediation Program at the Ronald T.Y. Moon Judiciary Complex in Kapolei. That experience, she says, helps her understand the human dynamics in divorce and child custody situations.

Six years ago, Bennett launched her Family Mediation Hawaii business; since then, she’s added six mediators, all lawyers who know their way around a courtroom. They also understand the dynamics of child development, and how issues like substance abuse and power imbalances can play out during a divorce. And as mediators, she says, they are practiced at remaining neutral.

Additionally, comments made in court are available to the public, whereas mediation is a confidential process in which the two parties control the outcome.

Family Mediation Hawaii bills by the hour. “People want to know when is it going to be done and how much it’s going to cost. I say, ‘It depends on how much you fight.’ ”

Most of the company’s clients seek uncontested divorces, and most of the cases are referred to mediation by the court. This means they never step foot in a courtroom; instead, a Family Court judge signs off on their paperwork and enters the divorce decree.

Bennett says people’s behavior runs the gamut, from parents fleeing the country with a child to those who amiably try to sort out school schedules and co-parenting during the holidays.

“We know how kids of different ages deal with separation,” she says. “There’s definitely a place for the legal system, but we can make things happen faster. Even if it’s a partial decision, like who pays for school, it’s going to make the trial go a heck of a lot faster.”