MIAM Advice

What a MIAM Is and Who Must Attend

Section 10(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 says that before making a relevant family application a person must attend a family mediation information and assessment meeting.

Only an authorised family mediator may conduct a MIAM: a person the Family Mediation Council identifies as qualified. Rule 3.9 requires the mediator to explain mediation and the other methods of non-court dispute resolution, to assess whether there has been, or is a risk of, domestic abuse, or of harm to the child by a prospective party, and to say which route may be most suitable, why, and how to take it forward.

The requirement falls on the applicant. Practice Direction 3A expects the prospective respondent to attend too, with you or separately, and GOV.UK says you each attend your own MIAM separately, usually with the same mediator; if they are unwilling you still attend and can then apply to the court. Attending is not agreeing to mediate: mediation goes ahead only if you both agree.

Which Applications Need a MIAM

Rule 3.6 applies the requirement to applications starting the children and financial remedy proceedings specified in Practice Direction 3A, unless an exemption applies. Paragraph 12 lists the children applications:

• a child arrangements order or any other section 8 order, including specific issue orders and prohibited steps orders
• a parental responsibility order, or an order ending it
• an order appointing a child's guardian, or one ending the appointment
• permission to change a child's surname or to remove a child from the United Kingdom
• a special guardianship order, or its variation or discharge

Paragraph 13 lists the financial applications, including the financial orders sought in financial remedy proceedings on divorce or dissolution, financial provision for a child under Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989, failure to maintain orders and alteration of a maintenance agreement.

Three kinds of application sit outside the rule: an application for a consent order; an application to enforce a financial order or an agreement made in or in contemplation of financial remedy proceedings; and a children application about a child in emergency, care or supervision proceedings or subject to such an order, which belongs with care proceedings. Neither list includes the divorce or dissolution application, or an application for a non-molestation order, an occupation order or another protective injunction, so nothing in Part 3 delays an application for protection.

MIAM Exemptions and the Evidence Required

Rule 3.8(1) lists the exemptions. You claim one by ticking the box on the form; any evidence required goes to the court with the application but is not served on the other party (paragraph 19). The exemptions are:

• Domestic abuse: evidence of one of the kinds in paragraph 20, set out below.
• Child protection: the child concerned, or another child of the family living with them, is currently the subject of section 47 enquiries or a child protection plan.
• Urgency: a risk to the life, liberty or physical safety of you, your family or your home; or delay would risk harm to a child, the unlawful removal or retention of a child abroad, a miscarriage of justice, significant financial hardship or irretrievable problems with the dispute; or there is a significant risk that proceedings about the dispute will be started in another state that may have jurisdiction before a court here is seised.
• Previous attendance: a MIAM, or another non-court dispute resolution process confirmed in writing by the provider, in the 4 months before the application about substantially the same dispute; or you attended a MIAM before starting proceedings that are still running and apply within them.
• Bankruptcy, in a financial remedy application only: your bankruptcy application, a creditor's petition against you or a bankruptcy order.
• The application would be made without notice, or a child is one of the prospective parties.
• Access: you cannot attend online or by video link and you explain why, and either every authorised mediator within 15 miles of your home (or five of them) cannot offer the facilities a disability or other inability requires or cannot hold a MIAM within 15 business days of your contact, in which case their details and your dates of contact go to the court, or there is no authorised mediator within 15 miles.
• Detention or bail: you are detained without facilities to attend online or by video link, or bail or licence conditions prohibit contact with the other person.

Paragraph 20 is a closed list of domestic abuse evidence: an arrest, caution, prosecution, conviction or bind over for a relevant domestic abuse offence; a domestic violence protection notice or a domestic abuse protection notice; a protective injunction such as a non-molestation order, or an undertaking given under section 46 or 63E of the Family Law Act 1996, provided the other person did not give a cross-undertaking about domestic abuse; a finding of fact or expert report in UK proceedings; letters in the prescribed terms from an appropriate health professional, a MARAC member, an independent domestic abuse or sexual violence advisor, a tenancy officer, a domestic abuse organisation or charity, a refuge or a public authority; a Home Office letter granting leave as a victim of domestic abuse; and evidence of financial abuse. A without notice order later set aside does not count (paragraph 38).

Common problems: an exemption ticked without the required evidence, a support letter missing the statements paragraph 20 prescribes, an order that has been set aside, and urgency asserted where the real complaint is delay. Each invites a finding that the exemption was not validly claimed.

How the MIAM Process Works

1. We confirm the requirement covers your application and whether an exemption applies.
2. You find an authorised family mediator through the Family Mediation Council register and the mediator contacts the other person. Practice Direction 3A says a MIAM should be held within 15 business days of contacting the mediator.
3. You attend your own separate meeting, in person, online or by video link. The mediator explains the routes, assesses safety and suitability, and says which route may fit and why.
4. If a route is suitable and you both agree, it starts; see our family mediation support page. If not, the mediator signs the confirmation: section 4 of the C100 for a children application, the MIAM section of Form A for a financial order, or form FM1 with a C1 or C2.
5. We lodge the application with the confirmation, or with the exemption claim and its evidence. The court fee and the help with fees scheme are on the GOV.UK court and tribunal fees page.

After the MIAM: Forms, Time Limits and Costs

The Family Mediation Council says the mediator can sign the court form as long as you attended within the last four months, so a delayed application is likely to need a fresh MIAM.

Once proceedings start the court must consider at every stage whether non-court dispute resolution is appropriate, and in financial remedy cases, and children cases on the online system, each party normally files a form setting out their views before the first hearing, unless the applicant claimed the domestic abuse exemption or a form C1A has been filed; our mediation and out of court options hub explains that form. Costs can follow conduct: a failure to attend non-court dispute resolution the court allowed time for will not affect any substantive decision, but under rule 28.3(7) a failure without good reason to attend a MIAM or non-court dispute resolution is a matter the court must have regard to in financial remedy proceedings.

The mediator sets the MIAM fee and the GOV.UK guide to the cost of a MIAM gives a guide figure; you each normally pay for your own attendance. RakLAW does not do legal aid work, but the Legal Aid Agency can meet the total cost of MIAM attendance for both of you where at least one of you is financially eligible, through a mediator who does that work. The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme offers a contribution towards mediation sessions, not the MIAM, in a dispute about a child, or a financial dispute running alongside one, subject to availability.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

A MIAM is not legal advice. The Family Mediation Council's code requires a mediator in mediation to advise you that it is in your own interests to take independent legal advice before any final agreement, and to make clear that the mediator does not verify the information either of you gives. Advice before the meeting matters most where:

• there has been domestic abuse or coercive control and you need to know whether your evidence meets paragraph 20, or whether attending separately or online is safer; in immediate danger call 999, and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247
• a child may be taken abroad or kept there, which our international child abduction page covers, or another urgency must be evidenced
• the other person has invited you to a MIAM and you want to know what it commits you to, or whether to propose solicitor led negotiation, a round table meeting, collaborative family law, a private FDR or family arbitration instead
• your right to stay in the UK depends on the relationship: see family immigration

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We are family solicitors at 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge, not a mediation provider: an authorised family mediator holds the MIAM. Where an exemption applies we complete the exemption section of the application or form FM1, and we advise on the route the mediator indicates, drafting the order that makes an agreement binding or preparing the contested application.

Our family law fees page explains how we charge, and RakLAW does not offer legal aid. Call 0203 345 2000 or book a free consultation before you apply.