What to Expect During a Family Mediation Session

This resource examines the second stage of mediation, which occurs after you and your ex-spouse have attended your MIAMs and are beginning combined mediation sessions. If you like to learn more about Mediation Information Assessment Meetings, please go here (MIAMs), UK Family Mediation Plymouth

How does a session of family mediation work?

At the first collaborative conciliation process, the mediator would offer a summary of the rules (rules) contained in the MIAM, including such confidentiality, safeguarding, respect, taking pauses, and so on. Before mediation can occur, you must sign a contract to mediate in order for the process to continue. By signing, you acknowledge the mediation procedure, the facts on privacy, data protection, charges, and how to file a complaint. The mediator will next ask each side if they have any concerns before requesting them to describe why they’re at mediation. Once one side has given a statement, the Mediation and litigants will determine the agenda. The purpose of setting the agenda is to ensure that all parties are heard and that the things they believe should be covered are discussed, as well as to prioritise concerns and provide a framework for each mediation session. From the agenda, you and your ex-partner will next, with the assistance of the mediator, discuss the agenda topics.

The family mediator will help the parties by developing ideas (with the parties’ consent), providing information pertinent to the case, challenging comments made by the parties, providing tried-and-true solutions, and facilitating the parties’ ability to establish durable agreements. https://portsmouth.ukfamilymediationservice.co.uk/

If more than one session is necessary, future sessions will vary in that the mediator will re-establish the rules and then ask if you have any questions before proceeding with the agenda.

Joint mediation sessions may occur whenever the parties choose. Depending on how fast the parties achieve an agreement, they often last anywhere from one to several months.

The majority of mediations with UK Family Mediation are resolved in one to three sessions.

What happens when just children’s arrangements are in issue?

When mediation is necessary to resolve child-related concerns, the mediator’s responsibility is to assist separated parents move ahead effectively. While mediation often occurs between former partners or legal guardians, it is also accessible for family members and grandparents who desire to see their grandchildren.

The mediator will assist you in discussing and recognising what is in the best interests of your children, eliminating the emotions and differences between the adults involved in the separation that might cloud your judgement over what problems must be handled with your children. In general, parents want what’s best for their children, but this may be forgotten after a divorce. So, focusing on the children’s interests and recognising their needs assures that their needs will continue to be satisfied even if you are no longer a couple. The mediator may also assist you in determining how to demonstrate to your children that, despite your separation, you are working together for their best interests and how to co-parent successfully. With mediation, you may guarantee that any decisions about your children are made by you as parents and not by an outside body, such as the family court, that does not know your children or the circumstances as well as you do.

You will be able to come up with a suitable parenting plan for the two of you through joint mediation sessions that will address these challenges and concerns. After points have been agreed upon by you and your ex-spouse and a plan has been formulated, the mediator creates a Parenting Plan. This is a thorough document that summarises the talks and choices about your children and future co-parenting that took place during the mediation process. The Family Plan is legally enforceable and can be used to support court applications when appropriate. Even so, data indicates that participants are much more likely to stick to a mutually agreed upon agreement. If you want the family courts to enforce your parenting plan, you may discuss with the mediator the possibility of a consent order, in which the parenting plan is submitted to a lawyer and converted into a consent order.

Note: If you are attending mediation because to child support difficulties, this still falls under the category of child arrangements, not finances.

What happens during a joint family conciliation process involving finances?

In cases that involve funds and/or property, the mediation will specify precisely which resources are at stake. This contains information about you and your ex-property, spouse’s income, future pensions, valuable items, and total expenses, etc. Disclosure must be performed in order to ascertain these details. This is the procedure through which each party must provide a complete and truthful account of all assets, both joint and individual. It also includes everything that technically belongs to someone else but remains in your name, such as savings accounts for your children. Disclosure and listing of all assets do not always imply that all assets will be automatically divided in a certain manner, since there may be some items that you or your ex-spouse have previously agreed upon or that you believe are yours and should not be shared. Yet by cataloguing everything in this manner, you are both completely aware of all the numbers prior to making judgements that cannot be reversed.

Transparency ensures that the topics that are most important to you are prioritised and that areas of both agreement and disagreement may be emphasised in order to find a mutually fair resolution. It guarantees that nothing is missing, and if papers or information seem to be lacking, the mediation process may identify those areas and direct you to the services or advice you may need to ensure that all parties are treated fairly. The mediator will assist you in making decisions and resolving the matter. They may assist you in generating suggestions that are acceptable to both you and your ex-partner, as opposed to lingering in a deadlock.

What is the meaning of shuttle mediation?

In situations when the mediator has determined that you and your ex-partner cannot be on the same conference/video session, they may explore the idea of shuttle mediation with you. The parties are on separate calls or in different virtual rooms with the mediator. Sometimes, the length of a shuttle mediation is prolonged. The mediator would go back and forth between parties, delivering communications between them. Often, shuttle mediation makes parties feel protected and gives them the courage to communicate freely.

We hope you have appreciated this resource and have found it useful. This is a friendly reminder that all of the information on this website, including resources, blogs, articles, and web page content, may not be used or duplicated in any public domain unless otherwise specified. Moreover, UK Family Mediation is not responsible for the accuracy of these sites nor for how individuals use the information we give.

All parties must attend a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting, often known as an MIAM, prior to a mediation session. If you would like further information, please click here.

We hope you have appreciated this resource and have found it useful. This is a friendly reminder that all of the information on this website, including resources, blogs, articles, and web page content, may not be used or duplicated in any public domain unless otherwise specified. BRAND is also not responsible for the accuracy of these sites or how individuals utilise the information we give.