Divorce Mediation

Rather than heading straight to divorce court, you may want to consider Divorce Mediation first as it can be a quicker and more cost-effective way to settle things.

You do not have to use a court to settle financial or child arrangements, this can be done before divorce proceedings start via Mediation. Mediation can also be used to discuss who will divorce who and on what grounds, and your mediator can give you both information on the grounds for divorce and the divorce procedure itself. They cannot however act for you in the divorce proceedings. Reaching an agreement early on about all of these issues, will help your divorce progress through court more quickly and without the risk of it being contested.

Most solicitors would advise you not to apply for your Decree Absolute (the final part of the divorce) until financial claims are agreed upon and formalised into a legal document called a Consent Order. Frequently people come to mediation to agree on the financial issues so that the terms of what they have agreed can be quickly and easily put into a Consent Order by their solicitor at the end. This avoids the cost and delay often associated with solicitors having to negotiate this for them instead. The Consent Order can only be applied for after you have the Decree Nisi in the divorce, but an early resolution of what the terms of that order will be will avoid delay further down the line.

Mediation forms part of the court process because for certain types of application you would be expected to at least consider mediation before making a court application. Most typically this requirement applies to cases where you wish to make a court application over child arrangements, or where you are applying for financial orders alongside divorce proceedings. In these cases you would usually be required to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), and you would not be able to make your court application unless you can show that you have attended one of these meetings. We are able to offer the MIAM and our mediators are accredited to certify your attendance if needed for your court application.

Mediation can also help resolve issues that have arisen after court proceedings, such as where one party wants to vary a child arrangement order, or to consider variation of a maintenance order. Circumstances can change and sometimes past agreements or court orders need to be reviewed. It will save considerable costs if any variation can be agreed in advance of asking the court to make the variation.

It is never too early or too late to Mediate, the process can resolve issues both before, during and after divorce or other court proceedings. Every case is different and it is worth considering the suitability of mediation at every stage of the legal process.