Round Table Meetings

What a Round Table Meeting Is

A round table meeting is a negotiation meeting attended by both of you and both of your solicitors. The Family Mediation Council describes solicitor negotiation as the model where you each have a lawyer and may hold one or more round-table meetings to assist the negotiations. Everyone is in the same place at the same time, so a proposal can be made, answered and refined in the meeting rather than by an exchange of letters.

There is no mediator and no judge: each solicitor acts for one client and advises them in the room. That sets it apart from family mediation, where an independent mediator works with both of you and takes a neutral approach, from collaborative family law, where the lawyers cannot act for either of you in later court proceedings, and from a private FDR, where a neutral evaluator gives a view on the likely outcome. A meeting can be held before the first letter, after solicitor-led negotiation has stalled, or in the gap before a hearing.

You do not have to sit in the same room: a common format gives each of you a separate room with your own solicitor, and video meetings work the same way.

What the Family Court Expects

For financial claims on divorce or dissolution the Pre-application Protocol annexed to Practice Direction 9A, in force since 31 May 2024, applies whether or not the parties are represented. Paragraph 6 says the court will usually expect each party, before proceedings start, to have attended a MIAM unless a valid exemption applies, considered and proposed appropriate non-court dispute resolution, provided full disclosure and made reasonable proposals for settlement.

Paragraph 12 is why round table meetings matter. Constructive negotiation by correspondence between legal representatives alone, the Protocol says, shall not be a sufficient attempt at non-court dispute resolution, while other forms of negotiation between legal representatives, such as round table meetings, may be considered sufficient depending on when and how they took place. The meeting therefore has to be a genuine attempt to settle, held at a sensible point.

If nothing has been attempted, paragraph 15 allows the court to decline to start its timetable or to suspend it until one form has been tried. On costs, paragraph 25 says the court takes into account open pre-application offers, the timing of disclosure and a failure without good reason to attend non-court dispute resolution, or abandoning it prematurely and without justification. Practice Direction 28A adds that a refusal openly to negotiate reasonably and responsibly is generally conduct the court will consider a costs order for.

Disputes about children have their own Pre-application Protocol, annexed to Practice Direction 12B. Paragraph 23 lists the options parents are expected to have considered, including a collaborative approach where everyone meets with their own legal representative, and says an exchange of letters between lawyers is not usually sufficient. Paragraph 25 requires parties who reach court to tell the judge what they explored and why it did not work. In financial remedy proceedings where the MIAM requirement applies, and in private law children proceedings on the online system where it applies, paragraph 10C of Practice Direction 3A requires each party to file a Form FM5 setting out their views on non-court dispute resolution before the first hearing, unless the applicant claimed a MIAM exemption on the basis of domestic abuse or a Form C1A has been filed.

A round table meeting does not replace the MIAM. Attending a non-court dispute resolution process in the four months before an application is an exemption under rule 3.8(1)(d), but Practice Direction 3A requires written confirmation of attendance from the provider of that process, and whether a meeting run by the parties' own solicitors counts is for the court. Our MIAM advice page explains the exemptions.

Preparing: Disclosure, Agenda and Offers

A meeting held before the figures are known settles nothing. The Protocol expects full and honest disclosure, sufficiently accurate and up to date to enable proper negotiations, using Form E as a guide to the format and summarised in a composite asset and income schedule. The duty continues until a final order is made, and an agreement based on dishonest information supplied in pre-application disclosure is very unlikely to be upheld by the court.

We agree the agenda, the attendees and the basis of the discussion with the other solicitor in advance. We usually agree that the meeting is held without prejudice, so proposals made in the room are not normally admissible as admissions if the case does not settle. Under rule 28.3(8) no offer other than an open offer is admissible in financial remedy proceedings, except that rule 9.17 requires details of all offers, including without prejudice ones, to be filed before a financial dispute resolution appointment.

The problems we see most often are:

• disclosure that arrives in pieces, so the meeting works on figures rather than terms; where hidden assets or non-disclosure are suspected it may need to wait
• a pension, business or property that needs a valuation first, as our pages on pensions on divorce and business assets explain
• one party without a solicitor; the Protocol expects us to recommend independent legal advice to an unrepresented party
• an imbalance of power or a history of abuse; Practice Direction 12B says victims of domestic abuse are not expected to participate in non-court dispute resolution
• terms agreed in the room and withdrawn the next day, which is why heads of agreement are signed before the meeting ends

How a Round Table Meeting Works

1. At the first meeting we identify the issues, advise on the range of outcomes a court might order and confirm whether a MIAM is needed.
2. We propose the meeting in correspondence, as the Protocol expects, and agree the date, format, attendees and without prejudice basis.
3. Financial disclosure is exchanged in advance on Form E, with a composite schedule where possible; in a children dispute, each parent's proposals are exchanged in writing first.
4. Before the meeting we agree your priorities, what you can concede and the outcome you would accept, and draft your proposals.
5. The solicitors lead the discussion issue by issue. You can stop for private advice at any point, and where separate rooms are used they carry proposals between them.
6. Anything agreed is written as heads of agreement and signed by both of you before the meeting ends, with any open points listed and a plan for resolving them.
7. We then draft the consent order or the written arrangements for the children, and advise on a further meeting, mediation or an application for anything left open.

Making the Agreement Binding

Heads of agreement record the terms, and only a court order can end the financial claims between you, so the terms are turned into a consent order. Sign heads of agreement only if you are content to be held to what they say: the court may be asked to make an order in the terms you agreed, and resiling from a reasonable agreed position can itself be raised on costs. Under rule 9.26 the application is accompanied by a draft order endorsed with the respondent's agreement and a statement of information from each party. A court fee is payable and the amount is on the GOV.UK court fees page. Terms agreed before any divorce can be recorded in a separation agreement.

Arrangements for the children do not need an order to be followed. Section 1(5) of the Children Act 1989 says a court shall not make an order unless it considers that doing so would be better for the child than making no order at all, and Practice Direction 12B describes a parenting plan as a useful way for separated parents to set out what they have agreed. Our child arrangements orders page explains what the court considers where an order is needed.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

Advice before and during a round table meeting matters most where:

• there has been domestic abuse; you are not expected to take part in non-court dispute resolution, evidence of domestic abuse is a MIAM exemption, and our domestic abuse and injunctions pages cover protective orders. In immediate danger call 999; the National Domestic Abuse Helpline is 0808 2000 247.
• the other party has a solicitor and you do not: everything said in the room is said to someone advancing the other side's position
• assets may be moved before terms are agreed; the Protocol recognises an application to stop assets being disposed of may be made while non-court dispute resolution is under way, and a freezing order may be needed
• your right to stay in the UK depends on the relationship, which the family immigration pages cover

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

We arrange and attend round table meetings from 42 Shad Thames in Southwark, a short walk from Tower Bridge, as one of the out of court options we advise on, and we can host the meeting or join one arranged by the other solicitor. We tell you at the outset whether a meeting is the right step or whether disclosure, a valuation or a MIAM should come first. Where it narrows the issues rather than settling them, we advise on financial remedy proceedings or another route.

RakLAW does not offer legal aid. Our charges are set out on the family law fees page, the first 15 minute consultation is free, and you can call 0203 345 2000 or book an appointment to discuss whether a round table meeting could settle your case.