What is Mediation?
Many clients ask us to explain Family Mediation. There are a few key features that distinguish mediation from other methods of dispute resolution such as the courts.
It is a voluntary, confidential, cost effective and time efficient process focused on future positives and not on past negatives.
Mediators do not act as legal advisors and will not give clients legal advice. They remain neutral and impartial throughout the process. They do not take sides in a dispute. Every Mediator is bound by a Code of Practice and Ethics.
Furthermore, they are facilitators not negotiators. Mediators will facilitate you in solving your own dispute. They will not create solutions for you. Through various tools and techniques they will help parties to a dispute find their own solution to their own problems.
Where parties enter the mediation process they sign a contract with the mediators known as an “Agreement To Mediate”. This contract sets out the ground rules for the mediation. It will confirm the parties and the mediators are bound by confidentiality. It will confirm that any offers extended by either party in the mediation process are treated as “without prejudice”. That means that any such offers can not be repeated in public or entered as evidence in court proceedings. Such offers remain “off the record”.
The process has a very high success rate. Based on international research statistics show us that on average eight out of every ten cases that enter the process settle or reach a successful conclusion.
The process is ideally suited to families where parents are trying to structure and organise a positive future for their children. Mediation can help parents minimise any fall-out caused by separation and divorce.
Where compared against contested court proceedings, mediations on average conclude in a much more efficient and time effective manner. Firstly, the process is tailor made to suit the clients needs. Secondly, as the parties control the process time frame there is no substantial backlogs or delays to deal with.
Furthermore, the process is much more cost effective than contested / protracted court proceedings. The cost of the process can be carefully managed by the parties through. Billing takes place between sessions giving the parties total control over the number of sessions they wish to book.