In this article, the authors discuss the process they followed in developing a safety protocol to better protect victims of domestic violence in mediation cases. The need for such a protocol was realized after domestic violence counselors, through interviewing battered women after they participated in mediation, discovered they felt intimidated, coerced and silenced during the process. Mediators often missed this dynamic in the relationship between the victim and batterer, and the authors determined a better tool was needed to identify threats to the victims' safety and allow their voices to be heard in the mediation process.

The resulting protocol involves five phases: (I) a phone conversation by mediation center staff to inform the parties about mediation and obtain basic information; (II) face-to-face interviews with both parties, separately for the purpose of intake and to administer a domestic violence screening process; (III) if the potential for domestic violence was found in Phase II, a domestic violence counselor meets with the potential victim to discuss the relationship further and determine whether the victim wants to proceed with the mediation; (IV) a safety plan - addressing such topics as session duration, out-of-bounds topics, escalation cues and safety signals, among others - is developed by the victim and counselor and reviewed by mediation staff; and (V) the mediation is held, incorporating the safety plan.