It starts with a MIAM…

If you want to make an application to family court, and do not qualify for one the of the 15 MIAM exemptions above, then the Ministry of Justice requires you undertake a MIAM to show you have at least considered mediation and have been provided with other Non-Court Dispute Resolution options to make an informed judgement. If after your MIAM, you decide you do not want to further engage with mediation, you will need your court form officially signed by the mediator, therefore allowing you to apply to court. This is priced at £35.

If mediation is deemed suitable and you are happy to proceed, the other party is then contacted to arrange their own MIAM. The other party may decline at this stage, or they may go through with the MIAM to later decide mediation is unsuitable for them. The key takeaway here is all parties (including the mediator) must actively want to engage with the process (or believe it is suitable), as voluntariness is one of the key principles of mediation. This holds true throughout the process.

Assuming both parties want to go ahead and the mediator deems joint mediation suitable, joint sessions will take place over the following weeks, or months, depending on everyone’s schedule. There may be several joint sessions needed to work through the agenda, and it wholly depends on the complexity of the issues. For mediations involving financial or property disputes, each party will need to undertake full and frank financial disclosure prior to engaging in joint sessions - the mediator will help you prepare for this by providing a form.

If parties successfully reach an agreement, the mediator is able to draft summary documents that can be turned into a consent order via a solicitor, before being signed by a judge to make the agreement binding. Without this process (and post-mediation documentation), the agreement made is non-binding.