Accredited Family Law Mediators — standards that matter.

What does accredited mean

"Mediator" is an unregulated word. There's no law stopping anyone from putting it on a business card. Accredited mediator is different — it's a recognised credential under a national framework, requiring formal training, supervised practice, ongoing development, and adherence to an enforceable code of conduct.

When you engage an accredited mediator, you know what you're getting: someone trained to a national standard, accountable to a professional body, and bound by ethical obligations that go beyond just doing the job.

AMDRAS: the national standard

The Australian Mediator and Dispute Resolution Accreditation Standards (AMDRAS) is the national framework, maintained by the Mediator Standards Board. To be accredited, a mediator must:

• Complete formal training meeting the national standard
• Pass a competency assessment
• Practise under supervision
• Maintain Continuing Professional Development
• Adhere to the AMDRAS Practice Standards (impartiality, confidentiality, competence)
• Be subject to a complaints process

That's a real bar. It's not something you can just declare yourself into.

FDRP for parenting matters

For parenting disputes that may proceed to court, the mediator must also be registered as a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner (FDRP) under the framework administered by the {cite("ag_fdr")}. Only FDRPs can issue the {esc("Section 60I certificate")} the court requires for most parenting applications. See Section 60I certificates →

Mediators who are also lawyers

Many of our mediators are also practising or formerly-practising family lawyers. That's deliberate. A mediator with legal training brings two things to the room a non-lawyer mediator doesn't:

• Understanding of what a court would actually do with your matter — so the agreement reflects realistic outcomes
• Ability to spot issues in proposed terms that look fine but would cause problems later

The combination of accredited mediator and family lawyer is genuinely unusual, and it's where a lot of our value lies.

Why accreditation matters

Three concrete reasons:

1. The certificate — if your matter ends up needing a Section 60I certificate, only an FDRP can issue it. A non-accredited mediator can't.
2. The standards — accredited mediators are bound by a Practice Standards code covering impartiality, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and competence. Non-accredited mediators aren't.
3. The recourse — if something goes wrong, accreditation comes with a complaints process and meaningful consequences. Without it, you're on your own.

Our team's standards

Every mediator at Mediations Australia is nationally accredited under AMDRAS. For parenting work, they're also registered as FDRPs. Many are also experienced family lawyers. Continuing professional development is a requirement, not a nice-to-have — our mediators stay current with family law reform, evolving practice, and emerging considerations around family violence and child welfare.

Vs non-accredited

You can find non-accredited "mediators" — sometimes much cheaper. The risk is straightforward: they can't issue Section 60I certificates, they're not bound by enforceable standards, and you have no recourse if things go wrong. For low-stakes informal disputes, that may be acceptable. For family law matters with real consequences — children, property, futures — it isn't.

Getting started

The first step is a free initial consultation. You'll work with an accredited mediator from the start — we don't outsource to subcontractors and we don't put trainees on real matters.