What happens in mediation?

Upon receipt of your referral form or initial call, our Mediator will contact you to discuss mediation in more detail and discuss whether Mediation is suitable for your case and what other options may be available to you. We shall also have the same discussion with your ex partner.

Where the Mediator considers that the matter is suitable for Mediation and both yourself and your ex partner wish to proceed, we shall send both yourself and your ex partner a letter enclosing an information leaflet, a copy of the agreement to mediate and a Mediation Information Form.

You will need to complete the Mediation Information Form and read the Agreement to Mediate. You should make a note of anything you are not clear about. You will need to contact us so that we can arrange the first mediation session.

At that first session, the Mediator will spend a little while with each of you separately to go through the Agreement to Mediate and deal with any questions you may have in relation to the process and check that you both remain happy to  proceed with the session.

During the actual Mediation, you will be in the same room as your ex partner and the Mediator. An agenda for that session will be agreed and the Mediator will help you both work through the issues to be discussed. You may be able to agree or at least narrow some of the matters in dispute.

At the end of that session, the Mediator will summarize what had been dealt with today and what remains to be agreed. Depending, upon the issues being dealt with in Mediation, you may both be given a number of tasks to complete before the next session. We shall seek to arrange the next mediation session. You may be advised to take legal or financial advice to help in your discussions.

At the next and any subsequent sessions, the Mediator will talk to you both separately and briefly to ensure that you both remain happy to proceed and that nothing has happened which would make the Mediation process unsuitable. The Mediator will recap what happened at the last session and an agenda for that session will be agreed. Once more the Mediator will assist you both in discussing the issues and exploring the options for agreement and help you both consider how those proposals might work in practice and whether they are realistic.

Where you and your ex partner are able to reach an agreement on some or all of the issues, with your agreement the Mediator will draw up a Memorandum of Understanding (a summary of the agreement reached) and when dealing with financial issues an Open Statement of Financial Information. Should you wish a binding financial order to be drawn up, you will need to provide these to your solicitor who will help with this.

	Karen Johnson   Second Floor, Stag House, Old London Road, Hertford, SG13 7LA Tel: 01992 558411 Fax: 01992 582834 DX: DX57901 Hertford 11 Ducketts Wharf, South Street, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, CM23 3AR Tel: 01279 715330 Fax: 01279 715344 DX: DX146160 Bishops Stortford 2 Email: Karen.Johnson@breezeandwyles.co.uk