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When we receive your details from your solicitor, we will contact you to ask if you would like to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting.
This meeting gives you the opportunity to meet with a mediator to talk about your dispute and the issues, to find out about the mediation process and to ask any questions that you have. We can explain how many sessions you may need and how long the mediation may last based upon your particular circumstances.
This initial appointment is for you on your own with the mediator, although you may choose to attend this appointment jointly with the other person to the dispute if you both agree to a joint meeting.
Together with the mediator, you will be able to decide whether mediation is suitable for you.
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I Want To Try Mediation
If you decide that you would like to try mediation, and have attended a meeting on your own, then we invite the other person to attend an information and assessment meeting also.
If you are both willing to mediate, then we will arrange your first mediation session at a time convenient to you both.
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Cost of the Meeting
The cost of the information meeting is £120 for a single meeting or, if you arrange with the other party to the dispute to attend jointly, then the cost is £150.
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If Mediation Is Unsuitable Or The Other Person Is Unwilling To Mediate
Under The Children and Families Act 2014, there is a legal requirement that most separating or divorcing couples, or those with a dispute about finances or children, will attend a Mediation information and Assessment Meeting - called a MIAM, to consider whether mediation would be an appropriate way of resolving their disputes, before making an application for a court order.
If you are not the applicant, but the respondent, i.e. ‘the other person’, to the application, there is an expectation that you will attend a meeting also.
If mediation is not going ahead after you have attended your MIAM, and you decide that you are going to issue court proceedings to sort things out, then unless you can show that certain exemptions apply, you will need the mediator to sign either the court application itself or a form called an FM1, to show that you have attended a MIAM. Which of these forms you need depends on the type of application that you are making. The mediator will usually give you more information relevant to you and your circumstances during your MIAM.
