Can a Mediation Agreement Be Changed After a California Divorce?

Yes, a mediated divorce agreement can be changed in California, but how depends on timing and subject. Before a judge enters it, you and your spouse can renegotiate. After it becomes a judgment, changes need a court order. Custody and support can be revisited later. Property division is much harder to reopen.

Most people facing this question have already done the hard work. You and your spouse sat with a mediator, talked through the house, the accounts, the children's schedule, and signed something. Now one of you is wondering whether that paper is permanent: maybe a job changed, or maybe a term no longer fits family life. The answer turns on where the agreement sits in the process and what it covers, and that is what this page walks through.

What a Mediated Divorce Agreement Is Under California Law

Mediation, under Evidence Code section 1115, "means a process in which a neutral person or persons facilitate communication between the disputants to assist them in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement." The mediator is that neutral person. The mediator does not represent either spouse and does not decide anything for you; the agreement is yours.

A mediated settlement agreement is the written contract you and your spouse sign once you reach terms. It moves through two stages, and the stage controls almost everything below.

• Stage one: signed, not yet entered by the court. The agreement is a contract between you. It has no force as a court order yet.
• Stage two: part of a judgment. A judgment is the court's final written decision in the divorce. When spouses submit their agreed terms and the judge signs them as the judgment, it is called a stipulated judgment: a judgment built from the parties' own agreement. From that point, the terms are a court order, not just a private deal.

The written agreement also has a special status under the mediation confidentiality rules. Evidence Code section 1123 says a written settlement agreement prepared in mediation is not made inadmissible or protected from disclosure by those rules if it is signed by the settling parties and any one of these is true: it says it is admissible or subject to disclosure, or words to that effect; it says it is enforceable or binding, or words to that effect; all parties expressly agree in writing, or orally in the way the Evidence Code allows, to its disclosure; or it is used to show fraud, duress or illegality relevant to an issue in dispute. So confidentiality in mediation is real, but not absolute. More on that in the last section. The broader steps for putting terms on paper are covered in our guide to the divorce mediation agreement.

When Both Spouses Agree to Change the Agreement

The simplest path is mutual consent, and it works most easily at stage one. If neither of you has submitted the agreement to the court, you can go back to the table, renegotiate, and sign a revised written agreement. The original has no court-order force yet, so a new signed writing can replace it.

Once a judgment is entered, agreement between the two of you is still the starting point, but it is no longer enough on its own. A private side agreement does not change a court judgment. The usual vehicle is a stipulation, meaning a written agreement signed by both spouses and submitted to the court, asking the judge to make an order reflecting the change. The court still reviews it.

What the court will do depends on the subject:

• Property division. California courts generally do not reopen a final property judgment just because both spouses would now like different terms. Reopening usually requires one of the specific grounds discussed in the next section.
• Child support and spousal support. Under Family Code section 3651, a support order generally "may be modified or terminated at any time as the court determines to be necessary," subject to the exceptions and limits that section names. An agreed child support change still goes through the court, and the limits on below-guideline amounts apply.
• Spousal support written as non-modifiable. Under Family Code section 3591, support provisions of an agreement are generally open to later modification, but spousal support cannot be modified or revoked to the extent a written agreement, or an oral agreement made in open court, specifically says it is not subject to modification or termination.
• Custody and visitation. These remain open to change, as described further below.

When One Spouse Wants to Set Aside the Agreement

A harder question arises when only one of you wants out. "Set aside" means asking a court to undo an agreement or judgment, in whole or in part. It is not easy and it is not routine, and nothing here predicts how a court would rule.

Before judgment. A signed agreement not yet entered by the court is a contract, so general contract principles apply. A spouse seeking to withdraw would typically point to problems such as fraud, duress, undue influence, mistake or lack of capacity. Signing because a term now feels unwelcome is not one of those.

Shortly after judgment. California law gives a limited window in which a court may relieve a party from a judgment for reasons such as mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect. Family Code section 2120 describes the Family Code's set-aside rules as governing what happens "after the time for relief under Section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure has passed." That same section explains the balance the Legislature struck: finality of judgments weighed against fair division of property, sufficient support and deterring misconduct.

After that window. Family Code section 2122 sets the grounds and time limits for a motion to set aside a judgment or any part of it. Its grounds include:

• Actual fraud, where the defrauded party was kept in ignorance or otherwise prevented from fully taking part, brought within one year after the party discovered, or should have discovered, the fraud.
• Perjury in the preliminary or final declaration of disclosure, the waiver of the final declaration, or the current income and expense statement, brought within one year after discovery or when it should have been discovered.
• Duress, brought within two years after entry of judgment.
• Mental incapacity, brought within two years after entry of judgment.

The section lists further grounds beyond these, each with its own time limit.

This is where financial disclosure connects. Mediation does not remove the duty to disclose. Under Family Code section 2104, each spouse serves a preliminary declaration of disclosure under penalty of perjury, generally with the petition or response or within 60 days of filing it, unless the parties extend that time by written agreement or the court extends it by order. Under Family Code section 2105, except by court order for good cause, each spouse serves a final declaration of disclosure and a current income and expense declaration before or at the time you enter into an agreement resolving property or support issues (other than temporary support), unless you mutually waive the final declaration. Both sections say perjury on these declarations may be grounds for setting aside the judgment. For couples who put real care into reaching terms, the disclosure step is part of what helps those terms hold.

A judge is also not a rubber stamp. A court can decline to approve terms that do not meet legal requirements, such as a below-guideline child support amount without the declarations the law requires.

If the parties to a pending case stipulate to a settlement of the case or part of it, in a writing signed by the parties or orally before the court, the court may, on motion, enter judgment on the settlement's terms under Code of Civil Procedure section 664.6; in an action under the Family Code, the signature on that writing has to be the party's own, not an attorney's. Our guide to what happens after divorce mediation covers the steps from signature to judgment.

Child Custody and Support: Different Rules Apply

Children change, and the law expects that. California courts keep continuing authority over custody, visitation and child support, so these terms are never final in the way a property division is.

For joint custody, Family Code section 3087 says an order "may be modified or terminated upon the petition of one or both parents or on the court's own motion if it is shown that the best interest of the child requires modification or termination of the order." If either parent opposes the change, the court must state its reasons. In everyday terms, the focus is what is best for the child now, and that often turns on what has changed since the order was made: a move, a new school schedule, a child's growing needs.

For child support, Family Code section 3651, described above, governs modification, and section 3651 generally prevents changing amounts that accrued before the request to modify was filed. Agreed amounts carry a further condition. Under Family Code section 4065, unless federal law prohibits it, parents may stipulate to a child support amount subject to the court's approval, but the court will not approve an amount below the guideline formula unless the parents declare all of the following: they are fully informed of their rights concerning child support; the order is agreed to without coercion or duress; the agreement is in the best interests of the children involved; the children's needs will be adequately met by the agreed amount; and the right to support has not been assigned to the county and no public assistance application is pending. Where the local child support agency is providing services, a stipulated agreement is not valid unless the agency signs it. Our page on child support mediation goes further.

Private divorce mediation, which you and your spouse choose, is separate from the court's own custody mediation, and not all family law mediation is voluntary. Family Code section 3160 requires each superior court to make a mediator available, and under Family Code section 3170, if a pleading to obtain or modify a custody or visitation order shows those issues are contested, the court must set them for mediation. That includes requests to change an existing order. Domestic violence cases are handled by Family Court Services under a separate written protocol approved by the Judicial Council. If you are in immediate danger, call 911; where there has been abuse, coercion or a protective order, safety comes first.

In the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego, that court mediation is child custody recommending counseling with Family Court Services. Under Family Code section 3183, generally and consistent with local rules, the mediator may submit a recommendation to the court on custody or visitation if it is first given to the parties and their attorneys in writing before the hearing. Family Court Services calls this person the Family Court Counselor, and it explains that if no agreement is reached, the counselor makes a recommendation and the hearing proceeds. The judge decides. Simple Divorce Mediation is a private practice and is not part of the court or Family Court Services. See our page on child custody mediation for how the court process works.

What "Confidential" Means for a Mediated Agreement — and Its Limits

The general rule comes from Evidence Code section 1119: except as the mediation chapter otherwise provides, what is said and written for or during a mediation is generally not admissible or subject to discovery in civil and other noncriminal proceedings, and "all communications, negotiations, or settlement discussions by and between participants in the course of a mediation or a mediation consultation shall remain confidential." Evidence Code section 1128 adds that a reference to a mediation during a later trial is an irregularity in the proceedings.

That protection is strong but not absolute. Evidence Code section 1123 is a deliberate exception for the signed written settlement agreement, and it is the pathway that lets a court see and enforce the terms. A mediated agreement is therefore not always private and not always inadmissible.

The practical point is about wording. Whether the written agreement says it is enforceable or binding, or meets another section 1123 condition, can matter later if either of you asks a court to enforce it. An agreement that meets none of those conditions may face admissibility questions.

The court's custody mediation runs on different rules. The Evidence Code's mediation confidentiality chapter does not apply to it. Instead, Family Code section 3177 says those proceedings "shall be held in private and shall be confidential," and treats communications from the parties to the mediator as official information under the Evidence Code.

If You'd Like to Talk Through Your Agreement

Whether a mediated agreement can change usually comes down to a few concrete facts: whether a judgment has been entered, which terms you want to revisit, whether disclosures were completed, and what has changed since you signed. A consultation is a place to raise those questions — whether that means returning to mediation for a revised agreement, working out a partial agreement, or understanding what the court would need to see. The mediator will not take either spouse's side, act as either spouse's lawyer, or decide the outcome for you; either of you may also have a lawyer of your own.

To talk with the practice about changing a mediated agreement, in San Diego County or online anywhere in California, call Simple Divorce Mediation at 858-330-1378 for a joint mediation consultation.

About this article. Reviewed by Amy J. Lass, CA Bar No. 246779. Last updated 2026-10-08.