What is a Facilitation Package?
Available where one party has ties to England & Wales – a Facilitation Package is suitable for couples who have an agreement in principle that they want to have sense-checked by a neutral third party – without having to instruct separate solicitors.
It is a popular method used to get a clean break consent order or a separation agreement. It allows you both to deal with just one independent expert, rather than having to approach separate solicitors. We help with costs by setting a fixed fee for all the work in advance and we ensure your consent order is drafted and managed by an experienced solicitor.
Facilitation does not replace the legal requirements of a MIAM and it may be helpful to have legal advice prior to the meeting. Facilitation is not regulated like family mediation but once you have an agreement, a fully SRA regulated and experienced family solicitor takes on the drafting of your legal document and deals with the court for you. It can help to streamline cases where you are at or close to an agreement on the financial or parenting issues. Providing you have all relevant documents and have reached an agreement acceptable to a court, you can get your full settlement finalised in just 90-minutes. And your solicitor drafted consent order in a couple of weeks.
Highlights
- Clean break consent order or separation agreement
- Deal with one person to sense check your agreement
- Experienced solicitor drafts your legal paperwork and communicates with court
- Set fee where our process is followed – helping you to budget in advance
- Amicable – less friction, less cost, less time
When Should I Consider Facilitation?
Can you answer Yes to most of the following questions? Then the facilitation package may be right for you:
- We have an agreement in principle that we are both happy with
- We want an independent expert to sense check and finalise our agreement
- We want to check we have covered everything the court will want us to have considered
- We want to show the court we have used an independent expert to process our order, so it is more likely to be accepted
- We want our agreement drafted into a working document and financial statement for court
- We want a family law solicitor to draft our agreement into a legally binding one
- We want a solicitor to deal with the court on our behalf
- We don’t want a solicitor to undo our agreement or cause extra expense or friction
- We want a solicitor to deal with all communication with the court
- We want a fixed fee cost so we know the full costs upfront
How does Facilitation work?
If both of you are happy to proceed with the facilitation package, we book you in for a 90-minute meeting with one of our divorce experts.
Prior to the meeting we ask you to complete your financial disclosure and a client information form, providing your details, your financial agreement and any parenting arrangements you may have. We provide a checklist showing what you MUST have before you hold that 90-minute meeting.
Your facilitator will prepare a plan for the meeting and go through your disclosure, the division of assets, any ongoing payments between you, who will divorce and your parenting arrangements if necessary.
At the end of 90-minutes you will have your divorce or separation fully agreed and we will then draft a memorandum of understanding and a financial statement. We can draft a parenting plan where required. Once you are happy, we instruct one solicitor to process the divorce, consent order or separation agreement for you both. For divorce packages, you will have a separate solicitor each to manage the divorce to final divorce order, as we find this the best way to progress your divorce quickly.
If you still have financial or parenting issues to be resolved, then family mediation is probably the better route for you.
Facilitation streamlines the process, ensures the agreement you have reached is viable, would be acceptable to the courts and we check you have considered everything the court will want you to have considered.
If the process does break down – you would still have to attend a MIAM in order to go to court and we can arrange this for you. However, 98% of clients who take out a facilitation package continue with the process and finalise their agreements through us.
Facilitated Consent Order – Explainer Video
Next Steps
For most facilitation cases we would speak to you prior to booking your appointment in order to ensure it is the right service for you. The best way to do this is to book a free 15-minute consultation, which you can do here
Facilitation Packages
Divorce Package |
Consent Package |
Separation Package |
Child Arrangements Package |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finances | Finances | Finances | Parenting | |
| Cost per Person | £1,399 | £849 | £699 | £699 |
| Full financial disclosure | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Initial 90 minute Meeting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deal With Same Expert to Reach Agreement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Memorandum of Understanding | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Parenting Plan | ✓ | |||
| Open Financial Statement | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Solicitor Managed Divorce – Petitioner | ✓ | |||
| Solicitor Managed Divorce – Respondent | ✓ | |||
| Solicitor drafted Consent Order | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Solicitor drafted Separation agreement | ✓ | |||
| Solicitor completed Form A | ✓ | |||
| Solicitor completed D81 | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Consent order Submitted to court | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Solicitor Manages All Correspondence With Court | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Attendance At Court Required | ✓ | |||
| HMCTS Court Fees Child Arrangements – £116pp | ✓ | |||
| HMCTS Court Fees Divorce – £296.50pp | ✓ | |||
| HMCTS Court Fees Consent order – £26.50pp | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Total Per Person inc Court Fees | £1,722 | £875.50 | £699 | £815 |
Your Facilitators
Chris Yaffes
Chris is a non-practising family solicitor and accredited family mediator.
Originally from South Africa, Chris has practised both family and criminal law, before studying for a masters in international relations in New York.
Chris has a clear focus to helping clients reach an agreement, which is perfect for facilitation meetings. Chris is a member of Resolution and based in London.
Emma Ingham
Emma was a family law solicitor in her native Cardiff for 10 years, before she moved to Berkshire where she started a family. Emma is also a family mediator for Mediate UK and her calm and professional manner is perfect for helping clients through facilitation.
Emma’s family law background and experience of helping clients going through a divorce is perfect for clients wishing to finalise their financial or parenting consent order.