Family Law Mediation

Rarely is the case that couples who litigate their family law matters are happy with the outcome. Why? Because the involvement of lawyers invariably can lead to issues becoming both more complex and more emotionally-charged. This means that resolving your family dispute can become very expensive. Notwithstanding this, it’s likely that the final outcome, neither person is happy about. It’s well-reported that resolving your family law matters with lawyers will cost on average, between $40,000 and $80,000 and will take approximately 3.5 years. In contrast, a family law mediation with Mediations Australia will cost each person, in the vicinity of $1,500 and will take up to one-day.

Yes! Providing both of you acknowledge that the alternative is litigation of which is likely too much more emotionally draining, time-consuming, expensive and the imposition of an outcome that neither of you is likely to find the most suitable. Secondly, you need to come to the table leaving some baggage behind and a willingness to work things out together. Yes, it’s not a walk in the park, but our experienced Family Law Mediation will likely be able to move things to a point of which you previously didn’t think was possible!

Well, it can work in a variety of ways that best suits your circumstance and of course, how amicable you and your ex-partner already are. For example, you and your ex-partner may have collaboratively agreed that the relationship no longer worked and now you both just want to tie up the loose ends in a way that those agreements are binding. If you have both received independent legal advice or you haven’t yet or intend to, then Mediations Australia. Family Law Mediation can see both you and your partner together and provide an initial information session covering the mediation process. Alternatively, if you are already engaged in the legal process to resolve your family law matters, but now wish to draw into an end through alternate dispute resolution, then you can request mediation or simply ask us to do this on your behalf. We can then interact with your family lawyer.

Significantly cheaper than trying to resolve your family dispute with lawyers. A family law mediation will cost $1,650.00 for each person. This is a fixed-fee regardless of whether the mediation takes 8 hours or 4 hours. If you’re unaware at this point what the alternative costs are, consider that your family lawyer’s fees will be in the vicinity of $350 – $600 per hour, which very quickly can amount to tens of thousands of dollars if your family law matter lingers on, which most do when lawyers are involved. Not to mention, if your matter ends up in court, prepare to pay just for the preparation and first court date $6,000 to $12,000 or more in legal fees, not to mention court fees. Remember, the time to get to court is usually 12 months to 2 years later, of which legal fees accrue (sometimes up to hundreds of thousands of dollars) and the relationship between all involved becomes much more toxic and anger-fused.

Absolutely! A signed settlement agreement is as enforceable as any other contractual agreement. However, some Family Law mediation agreements must be lodged with a court to be recognised. Your Mediators will be able to advise you on this and at Mediations Australia, we will have the agreement constructed, perused by one of our lawyers and lodged in the Court on behalf of both you and your ex-partner.

A small number of couples who choose to do family law mediation, unfortunately, are unable to agree on all matters. However, if there is agreement on some matters, these can be enshrined in an agreement that is legally enforceable. For those matters unable to be mediated successfully, it may be the case that there is better clarity of the sticky-points that will allow you or your ex-partner to consider them with a little more time and choose to return to the mediation table at a later point. Alternatively, you may now wish to seek some legal intervention having benefited from identifying the key issues preventing resolution and isolating legal focus on those points alone. We can connect you to one of our Collaborative Lawyers.

Our Accredited and experienced family law Mediators offer you and your partner, a free initial consultation. This can occur in a number of ways, either individually in-person, via our state-of-the-art video technology or by phone. Alternatively, this free initial appointment can occur with both of you present, again either in-person, video or phone. The latter option works really well if you and your ex-partner have moved beyond the raw emotions and now just want to sort out the details and iron out an agreement.

It’s probably not surprising that all of our Mediators are either practising family lawyers or have been practising family law for many years. Typically it is the case that our family law mediators chose to undertake further study to become Mediators because they had experienced first-hand the failings of the family law system, in particular, the lunacy of wasting so much money and time, not to mention the fact that litigation aggravates already strung-out relationships.