Wrongful-death mediation reshaped Larson's outlook; he proposes 'collaborative divorce' rules

In a personal account at the Campaign and Election (TVW) event, Dave Larson described a wrongful-death mediation that convinced him the legal system should prioritize dignity for families. He said parents settled for "$40,000" after the funeral and a gesture planting trees satisfied their need for acknowledgement more than a larger payout.

Larson said that experience led him to seek alternatives to the adversary model. "Dignity and respect is essential as to essential to us as eating, breathing, and sleeping," he said, and described work underway to propose statutes and court rules to make collaborative divorce a formal option in family law.

Larson presented collaborative divorce as an example of how the Supreme Court can use rulemaking and statutory proposals to reduce adversarial conflict and keep society moving, not merely to decide high-profile appeals.