Family Mediation Ireland ®

With the advent of the currency crisis couples and families alike a having to get much more creative about debt mamangement.

With the onset of the Euro crisis and the Global Market turbluence in general people are having to devise new ways to save costs. Mediation is the most cost effective means of dealing with dispute. The cost of conflict in organisations is a major unaccounted for cost on the company balance sheet. The same applies to familes. Conflict invariably causes further costs for families in the same way that conflict burdens businesses.

Mediation is cost effective in several ways;

Time Efficient – No delay in going to mediation
Promotes better communication structures
Encourages open dialogue
Provides bespoke soultions to the parties in dispute

2012 will hopefully see the introduction of the Mediation and Concilliation Act which will give further impetus to the introduction of mediation into our courts system.

Many mediators are presently looking at the implications of the proposed Legal Services Bill which will be published shortly.

It appears likely that the bill, if subsequently enacted, will have substantial and dramatic consequences for the way lawyers do business in Ireland.

The question remains to be seen as to what impact, if any, the proposed legislation will have on the work of mediators, many of whom are also lawyers. The president of the Law Society of Ireland today outlined in an e-mail to practitoners the small level of consultation the Society have enjoyed with the Department of Justice in the lead up to the publication of the bill.

Many will argue that in the present recession Barristers are been treated unfairly, as they cannot solicit clients directly and are reliant for the greater part on Solicitors who pass on the work. As the recession deepened, less and less cases were been referred to counsel, who were in some cases seen by solicitors as an additional or surplus cost in cases. The mediation services bill will level the playing field somewhat and allow Barristers similar access to clients as solicitors.

By contrast mediation has offered lawyers, both Barristers and Solicitors alike a chance to experience how the legal dispute resolution system may work going forward. Firstly costs in mediation are set against scales (usually time rated). Secondly, parity of billing. In cases of comediation both Solicitors and Barristers are paid the same fee.

In many ways the legal system can learn from private client mediation practice as to how client billing will work going forward.

Family Mediation Explained from Family Mediation Ireland on Vimeo.