Family Dispute Resolution is a fantastic opportunity to take control of a difficult situation and to find the best path forward you and your children. 

Intake

The process starts with the intake sessions.  In those sessions, I meet with each of you individually for a confidential discussion about the issues that need to be discussed, your views and the your hopes for what can be achieved through the process.  It’s also an opportunity for you to raise any concerns you have and to ask questions about how the mediation will be run. The intake session can be conducted by phone or on Zoom, depending on your which you prefer.

You do not need to do any detailed preparation for the intake, but in children’s matters it would be helpful to have thought about:

• Where you would like the children to live

• How much time they might spend with each parent

• The other issues that might need to be discussed, like the children’s health, education, sport or other after school activities, religion and plans for the future

If we are dealing with property, it would be helpful to prepare a list of all of your assets and liabilities and the value of each.  This might include:

• Any houses or other properties

• Bank accounts

• Shares or other investments

• Cars, motorbikes, boats or caravans

• Furniture

• Superannuation

• Mortgages or other loans

• Credit cards

• Tax debts

• HELP debts

 You do not need to have a complete list of everything before you come to the intake session.  The session is an opportunity for us to identify any additional information that you might need to bring to the mediation.  I will also recommend that if you haven’t received legal advice about the issues that are going to be discussed, you should do this before coming to mediation

 The intake session is also an opportunity for us to consider whether the mediation process will be useful to you, whether this is the appropriate time to arrange a mediation, and whether it would be better to discuss the issues in person or over Zoom.

Intake sessions will be conducted by phone or by Zoom, depending on your preference.  These sessions can be conducted during business hours, in the evenings, or on weekends, depending on what is most convenient for you. 

Once I have spoken to each of you privately, I will assess whether the matter is suitable for family dispute resolution.  Examples of relevant considerations include:

• Any history of family violence

• Any risk of child abuse

• The safety of parties

• The emotional, psychological or physical health of the parties

• Whether both parties are able to negotiate freely.

If the matter is not suitable, I will issue you with a certificate stating this, and I will recommend that you seek legal advice about the other options available to you.

If the matter is suitable for mediation and both parties want to proceed, then we will book in a mediation as soon as possible, and we will discuss any additional information that you might need to bring to the mediation.  The mediation would usually be booked in around one to two weeks after the intake sessions.

Mediation

Each mediation is different and the process can be adapted to best suit your needs.  The usual process is:

• We would start by meeting in a joint session to allow you and your former partner to talk about the issues that you are seeking to resolve and how you see each issue.

• Based on the initial discussion, I will prepare an agenda for the mediation and check with you to ensure that you are comfortable that the proposed agenda covers everything

• We would then work through each item on the agenda to identify where there is common ground and where there are points of disagreement that we need to address

• I will usually then speak to each person privately for a confidential discussion where you can consider options for how to move forward and any proposal you may have for resolving the items on the agenda.  I may also use this time to hep you to think through some of the issues and to do some reality testing with you about the potential solutions.

• After these private discussions, which will remain strictly confidential, we would usually hold a further joint session to discuss potential solutions and to see whether an agreement can be reached on some or all of the issues.

What happens next?

If you reach an agreement, I will send you each my notes of what has been agreed and I will recommend that you talk to a lawyer about your options for recording the agreement, and the different types of agreements that you can enter into

If you cannot reach an agreement, we will discuss the best way to move forward.  If the reason why an agreement has not been reached is that one or both of you need more information before making a decision, or if you just need time to think about a proposal, then a second session can be arranged.  If you don’t need another half a day, a shorter session can be arranged at a reduced cost.

The process usually ends with an agreement, but sometimes it is just not possible to agree on all the issues.  No one will ever be pressured to settle a dispute, and of course everyone has the right to take a case to Court if they believe that this is the best way to sort everything out. 

In those cases where no agreement can be reached, I will issue you with a certificate which will tell the Court that you have gone through the family dispute resolution process.  The certificate will provide basic information about how far you went in the process, whether it would have been appropriate to continue, and whether each person made a genuine effort to resolve the dispute. The certificate won’t include any details of any offer that might have been made or any confidential information that you have shared during the dispute resolution process.