WHY MEDIATION?
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Mediation provides an opportunity to assess whether there is any possibility of a co-operative outcome to your dispute.
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Mediation provides the opportunity for you to work in a positive and constructive
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The mediation process tends to be less confrontational and less antagonistic than the alternatives.
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Mediation helps reduce hostility and improves the chances of long term co-operation.
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Mediation concentrates on resolving shared problems rather than allocating blame or examining the causes of the problems your family faces.
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Mediation focuses on the interests of children helping you to work together as parents, recognizing and meeting the needs of each child together even when you are no longer a couple.
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You can improve communication and look to the future, not the past.
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Mediation is less stressful for you and, indirectly, for your children.
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Mediation usually takes place face to face so you hear the other person’s words and are able to speak directly, rather than through letters and solicitors.
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You control the pace and content of mediation rather than your future being decided by lawyers, legislation or the court.
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Most clients using mediation to reach agreement have lower legal costs.
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The mediation process tends to be quicker than dealing with disputes through legal representatives and the court process.
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The mediation process allows couples to create a completely flexible and bespoke set of proposals, tailored to fit your family’s particular situation.
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The mediation process focuses on finding an outcome that both of you believe is fair to you both, rather than applying an independent measure of fairness as the courts would do.
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Even if, for one reason or another, mediation does not in your particular case result in agreed proposals, there will almost always be benefits from having attended mediation, including a better understanding of the other person’s position and identification of the real issues in the case.
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Where financial mediation is not successful, you can return to your solicitor with either partial or complete financial disclosure. This should save your own solicitor a good deal of work which means savings in time and your costs.