A private, confidential, and cost-effective path to divorce and separation.
Judge Linda Pearce Prestley (Ret.) is affiliated with CT Mediation Center, an institution established in 2002 to allow parties to bring their divorce and family law matters to resolution through the out-of-court mediation or arbitration process. With nearly four decades of legal experience, including nineteen years on the Connecticut Superior Court bench, Judge Prestley brings exceptional depth of knowledge and experience to her mediation practice.
As a former Presiding Judge in the Family Division who has resolved hundreds of family matters, Judge Prestley offers a rare combination of judicial insight, warmth, and steady guidance. Whether you are just beginning to consider divorce or separation, have already identified the issues that need to be resolved, or need help working through complex financial or parenting matters, the mediation process can be tailored to meet you where you are and help you find a path forward—privately, efficiently, and without the expense and uncertainty of litigation.
Family Dispute Resolution Services
Every family is different, and not every divorce or family dispute requires the same process. Judge Prestley offers several approaches to dispute resolution, allowing couples and families to choose the process best suited to their circumstances.
Comprehensive Divorce Mediation
Our full-process divorce mediation provides a private, respectful, and cost-effective alternative to traditional litigation. Couples work directly with Judge Prestley over a series of sessions to address all aspects of their divorce or separation, including property and asset division, retirement benefits, child custody and parenting plans, alimony, child support, and other financial and family issues.
Unless they are retained for the purpose of mediation, attorneys generally do not attend the mediation sessions themselves. Instead, each spouse can consult with independent mediation review counsel as needed throughout the process. This allows each person to obtain individual legal advice while preserving the cooperative nature and cost efficiencies of mediation. The goal is to help you reach informed, workable agreements without turning your family’s decisions over to the court.
ADR for Pending Divorce Cases
For couples already involved in divorce litigation, Judge Prestley offers Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) designed to help resolve contested issues without proceeding to trial.
Unlike comprehensive divorce mediation, ADR is typically an intensive half-day or full-day process, with both parties participating alongside their attorneys. Your attorney remains with you throughout the process to provide legal advice and advocacy while Judge Prestley facilitates settlement discussions.
ADR may be used to resolve a single issue preventing settlement or to work toward resolution of the entire case. It gives parties and their attorneys an opportunity to step outside the courtroom and devote focused time to finding a resolution.
Parenting and Custody Dispute Resolution
Some of the most difficult decisions families face involve their children. Judge Prestley works with parents to resolve custody and parenting disputes, develop or modify parenting plans, improve co-parenting arrangements, address relocation issues, and navigate the particular challenges that can arise in blended and changing families.
Her many years presiding over contested custody matters, together with her earlier service as Connecticut’s Child Advocate, provides a distinctive perspective on these sensitive issues. Her approach focuses on helping parents move beyond conflict, identify practical solutions, and keeping the needs and well-being of their children at the center of the discussion.
Family Arbitration and Private Dispute Resolution
Sometimes parties are unable to reach an agreement and need a neutral third party to make a decision. In appropriate matters, Judge Prestley is available to serve as a family arbitrator or neutral decision-maker.
This process can provide a more private and efficient alternative to traditional court proceedings, with greater flexibility in scheduling and the opportunity to select an experienced family law professional to hear the dispute. Depending upon the nature of the matter and applicable law, the parties may agree in advance upon the scope of the arbitration and whether the resulting decision will be binding.
For families who have worked hard to resolve their differences but remain at an impasse, arbitration can provide a path toward finality without the delay and uncertainty that can accompany protracted litigation.
Why Choose a Retired Judge as Your Mediator?
A retired family court judge brings a perspective to mediation that comes from years of seeing family disputes from the other side of the bench. Judge Prestley draws upon nearly two decades of judicial experience to help couples understand the legal framework, evaluate their options, and work toward practical and lasting agreements.
- Judicial Perspective: Having presided over hundreds of family matters, Judge Prestley understands how Connecticut courts approach the financial, parenting, and legal issues that arise in divorce and family cases.
- Practical Insight: Years of deciding and resolving family disputes provide valuable perspective on how courts analyze contested issues. While no one can predict how a particular judge will decide a case, Judge Prestley can help parties understand the legal considerations that may be important if their dispute ultimately proceeds to court.
- Steady Leadership: Nearly nineteen years on the bench taught Judge Prestley how to manage difficult conversations, identify the issues that truly matter, and keep discussions moving forward—even when conflict is high or communication has broken down.
- Balanced Approach: Judicial decision-making requires listening carefully, considering competing perspectives, and remaining impartial. Judge Prestley brings that same discipline to mediation, helping each person feel heard while maintaining the neutrality essential to the process.
- Knowledge of the Court Process: Her extensive family court background provides a thorough understanding of the legal and procedural requirements surrounding divorce and separation and of the issues a court will ultimately be asked to review and approve.
- A Child-Centered Perspective: Judge Prestley’s experience extends well beyond the courtroom. Her service as Connecticut’s Child Advocate, her years presiding over custody and parenting disputes, and her personal experience as a parent, stepparent, adoptive parent, and licensed foster parent give her an unusually broad perspective on the needs of children and families experiencing change.
Flexible Mediation Formats
Mediation should work with your life and circumstances. Judge Prestley offers flexible options for participating in mediation and dispute resolution:
- In Person: Meet face-to-face in a professional, comfortable, and neutral setting that allows for focused and productive discussion.
- Virtually: Participate from the convenience and privacy of your home or office through secure video conferencing, with the same personalized attention and structured process without the need for travel.
In-person, virtual, and, when appropriate, hybrid arrangements are available. We will work with you to determine the format that best fits your circumstances, comfort level, and schedule.
Why Choose Private Mediation for Family Matters?
Mediation gives couples the opportunity to resolve divorce and family matters outside the traditional adversarial process, with greater privacy, flexibility, and control over the decisions that will shape their lives and families.
- Privacy and Confidentiality: Sensitive financial, parenting, and personal matters can be discussed in a private and respectful setting.
- Child-Centered Solutions: Parents can develop arrangements tailored to the particular needs of their children and family.
- Cost-Effective: By focusing on resolution rather than prolonged litigation, mediation can significantly reduce both the financial cost and emotional toll of divorce.
- Efficient and Flexible: Couples can move forward on a schedule that works for them without being entirely dependent upon crowded court calendars.
- Greater Control: You and your spouse remain the primary decision-makers rather than asking a judge to determine the outcome.
- A More Respectful Process: Divorce does not have to become a battle. Mediation provides a structured setting for difficult conversations while helping couples focus on problem-solving rather than winning and losing.
- Experienced Guidance: With Judge Prestley, you receive the benefit of decades of family law and judicial experience while working toward resolution outside the courtroom.
The CT Mediation Center Advantage
With Judge Prestley as your mediator, you gain a neutral third party who understands both the legal framework and the human weight of what you are going through. Her approach combines family law and judicial experience with warmth, patience, and practical problem-solving—creating an environment in which difficult conversations can take place and meaningful agreements can be reached.
Judge Prestley knows from her years on the bench what happens when families are unable to resolve their differences and must turn important decisions over to the court. Her goal in mediation is different: to help you understand your options, identify what matters most, and find solutions that work for your family so that, whenever possible, you—not a judge—make the decisions that shape your future.
Family Law Mediation Areas
Judge Prestley provides mediation and dispute resolution services across a broad range of family law matters, including:
- Dissolution of marriage and divorce
- Legal separation
- Post-judgment disputes and modifications
- Child custody and parenting time
- Custody and parenting matters involving unmarried parents
- Parenting plan development and modification
- Child support
- Alimony and spousal support
- Property and asset division
- Retirement accounts, pensions, and other retirement benefits
- Complex and high-asset financial matters
- Family businesses and closely held business interests
- Relocation issues
- Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
- Blended family and stepparent issues
- High-conflict parenting and co-parenting disputes
Every family is different. Judge Prestley has extensive experience working with families of many different structures, including same-sex couples and LGBTQ+ parents and families, unmarried parents, adoptive and foster families, stepparents, and blended families. She brings the same respect, neutrality, and individualized attention to every family, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to resolving family matters.
Our Process
For Comprehensive Divorce Mediation
Our mediation process is structured enough to keep your case moving forward, but flexible enough to address the particular needs of your family. You set the pace, and Judge Prestley guides you through each step.
From your first mediation session through preparation of the final court paperwork, our goal is to provide a comprehensive process so that you are not left wondering what comes next. You remain in control of the decisions; Judge Prestley and CT Mediation Center provide the structure, guidance, and documentation needed to move your matter from discussion to resolution.
For Litigation ADR
When a divorce or family case is already in litigation, ADR provides an opportunity for the parties and their attorneys to step outside the courtroom and devote focused time to settlement. The process is tailored to the issues, complexity, and needs of each case.
- Customized Planning: Before the session, Judge Prestley works with litigation counsel to identify the issues to be addressed and determine the format, scope, and goals of the mediation.
- Pre-Mediation Preparation: Judge Prestley reviews the status of the litigation, contested issues, relevant court orders, financial information, settlement proposals, and other materials submitted by counsel so that mediation can begin with a clear understanding of the case.
- Focused Half-Day or Full-Day Session: The parties participate in an intensive mediation session with their litigation attorneys present throughout. Depending upon the circumstances, discussions may take place jointly, separately, or through a combination of both approaches.
- Targeted Resolution: Judge Prestley works with the parties and their attorneys to identify areas of agreement, narrow the issues that remain in dispute, and explore practical settlement options. The goal may be to resolve a single issue preventing settlement or, whenever possible, the entire case.
- Memorializing the Settlement: Agreements reached during mediation are clearly identified and memorialized so that counsel can prepare any necessary settlement documents and take the appropriate steps to conclude the litigation.
About Judge Linda Pearce Prestley (Ret.)
Judge Linda Pearce Prestley brings exceptional depth of experience to family mediation. She earned her B.A. from Hood College, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law.
She began her legal career as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Connecticut, representing the Connecticut Department of Education, the Department of Children and Families, and the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities. During her tenure, she successfully argued cases at the Trial, Appellate, and Supreme Court levels. In 1997, she was appointed to lead Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocate, where she provided oversight of agencies responsible for serving children, investigated child welfare concerns, authored child fatality reviews, and testified before the legislature on issues affecting children and families.
Appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court in 2000, Judge Prestley served for nineteen years, with much of her judicial career devoted to family court, including service as a Presiding Judge in the Family Division. Throughout her years on the bench, she consistently received the highest ratings from the family bar for her ability, integrity, and fairness. She also mediated numerous family cases and received extensive mediation training as a member of the judiciary.
Since retiring from the bench in 2019, Judge Prestley has devoted her practice to family mediation and arbitration. She has pursued additional advanced mediation training through Mediation Works, Inc. in Boston and the Martha’s Vineyard Mediation Program. She is a certified member of the Massachusetts Council on Family Mediation and a member of the American Bar Association, the Academy of Professional Family Mediators, the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce, and the Connecticut Bar Foundation, where she is a Charter James W. Cooper Fellow.
Judge Prestley has also taught family law as an adjunct professor at both the college and law school levels and speaks regularly on issues involving the courts, families, and children.
Ready to Learn More?
Contact CT Mediation Center to schedule a complimentary consultation with Judge Prestley and learn whether mediation is the right process for your family. She will answer your questions honestly, explain the process clearly, and help you to understand the options available to you.