Announcing the Opening of DESERT FAMILY MEDIATION SERVICES!

To our honored visitors:

We are excited to give you advance notice that the first family law mediation center in the Coachella Valley is opening its offices in Palm Springs on June 15, 2010. Our hope and expectation is that we will be providing much needed peacemaking and reconciliation services to couples involved in relationship difficulties who live within the inland desert cities' empire, including all of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. We invite diversity in our clientèle in all sizes, shapes, colors, and combinations!

Desert Family Mediation Services is the joint passion of the Honorable Gretchen W. Taylor, Retired Family Court Judge and Thurman W. Arnold, Attorney.

Former Judge Taylor was admitted to the Bar in California in 1979. She has practiced family law almost exclusively in the 31 years since. She is a Certified Family Law Specialist. Her practice was devoted to divorce and families in Beverly Hills until she became a Commissioner of the Indio Superior Court in Indio, California, in 1997. While in Indio she was one of two family court judges for the eastern Riverside County communities (excluding Blythe).

In 2003 Judge Taylor's assignment changed to the downtown Los Angeles Superior Court. She served as a family court commissioner in Los Angeles until 2009, when she retired and so left the bench. She has developed a particular expertise with high-conflict, high-asset dissolutions, domestic partnership breakups, but she cares deeply about all manner of relationship difficulties, small and large.

Since retiring in 2009 she has served privately as a family court referee, special master, private judge, and mediator for families residing in Los Angeles County, Orange County, Riverside County, and neighboring cities. She resides primarily in the Coachella Valley.



Thurman W. Arnold is a Palm Springs' native and was admitted to the practice of law in 1982. He has been practicing law from his offices in Palm Springs since that time, and exclusively handles family law and related matters. He recently passed the California State Bar Certification Examination and so is eligible to become a Certified Family Law Specialist this year. He frequently serves as a Judge Pro Tem of the Riverside County Superior Court in Indio.

Retired Judge Taylor and Attorney Arnold are committed to serving couples - and their children - and to managing the resolution of your disputes sensibly and with dignity. Mediation is a far better alternative to adversary court dispute litigation, and we as seasoned professionals know this fact first hand.

Judge Taylor is not a member of the Law Firm of Thurman W. Arnold - Desert Family Mediation Services is an enterprise completely separate from Mr. Arnold's law practice. Indeed, former Judge Taylor is not available to represent individual parties in dissolution cases or in any other family law proceedings.

We are overjoyed to share our expertise in helping couples resolve their breakups neutrally, economically and safely. In addition to mediations, we will be available to conduct private settlement conferences and to assist with parenting plans and parenting coordination. Please watch for us!

We and other passionate mediators are available for free initial consults.

The website for DFMS launches on June 15, 2010, If you find the information contained in this website useful, you might share our excitement concerning what is about to become available to all those who find it!

Our heartfelt desire is to share the wisdom accumulated over many years in order to spare you and your family from unnecessary suffering.

Desert Family Mediation Services offers a peacemaking alternative to family court.

Thurman W. Arnold III
Hon. Gretchen W. Taylor (Retired)

May 26, 2010

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