Out of Court Options and Mediation Solicitors

Mediation itself is voluntary and nobody can make you agree to anything. Before most private law applications about children, and most financial remedy applications, you must attend a mediation information and assessment meeting unless an exemption in rule 3.8 applies.

It is a short meeting at which a mediator explains mediation and the other routes and assesses whether mediation is suitable. Only an authorised family mediator, identified by the Family Mediation Council as qualified, may hold one and sign the court form.

Evidence of abuse of the kinds specified in Practice Direction 3A is a MIAM exemption, so you need not attend if you claim that exemption in the form that goes with your application. The court can inquire into the claim and direct a MIAM where it finds the exemption was not validly claimed or is no longer applicable. At any MIAM the mediator must assess whether there has been, or is a risk of, abuse or harm to a child. In immediate danger call 999.

The requirement falls on the person applying, although the other person is expected to attend one as well, and you would both need to attend before mediation could go ahead. If you attend and your former partner does not, you can still apply to the court.

Not by itself. You are given a document recording what you decided, and for finances a solicitor drafts a consent order which a judge then reviews and, if satisfied, makes.

Yes, as between you both: you agree in advance to be bound by the arbitrator's reasoned written decision. In a financial case you then apply to the court for an order in the same or similar terms as the award, and the court keeps its own power to decide what order to make. Where the decision concerns a child, the child's welfare remains the court's paramount consideration, so an order is sought where one is needed.

It is a private version of a financial dispute resolution appointment. The evaluation is an indication of the likely outcome, not a binding decision.

You each appoint a collaboratively trained lawyer and work through the issues in meetings between the four of you. The agreement you sign commits you to trying to resolve the issues without going to court, and prevents those lawyers from representing you in court if the process breaks down.

It cannot make you reach an agreement, and the Family Procedure Rules do not give the court power to require you to attend non-court dispute resolution. In financial remedy proceedings where the mediation meeting requirement applies, and in children proceedings where it applies and the case is running on the online court system, each party must file and serve a form setting out their views on non-court dispute resolution before the first hearing, unless the applicant claimed the domestic abuse MIAM exemption or a form C1A alleging harm has been filed. It can also direct a MIAM where an exemption was not validly claimed, and it must consider at every stage whether non-court dispute resolution is appropriate.

In financial remedy proceedings the general rule is that no costs order is made, but the court may depart from it because of a party's conduct. The factors it must consider include any failure, without good reason, to attend a MIAM or non-court dispute resolution.

The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme offers a contribution towards mediation sessions, subject to availability, in eligible cases about arrangements for a child, including where a financial dispute runs alongside a dispute about a child, and your mediator applies for it; it cannot be used for the MIAM. The current terms are published on GOV.UK.

We charge family work on a time spent basis at our published hourly rates, with a fixed or staged fee possible for straightforward matters. Our fees for family law page has the detail, and RakLAW does not offer legal aid.