Where can I find family mediation in London?
Did you know: A lawyer will charge a high hourly fee for mediation, even though they cannot give legal advice during mediation or tell you both what to do. Costs can be as high as £400 plus VAT per hour for a lawyer who is also doing family mediation.
Being a good lawyer does not necessarily guarantee you are also getting a good family mediator. And in this industry, hourly costs do not always equate to better value. It can be extremely difficult to decide who best to turn to. So, how do you choose a family mediator in London? We hope the below guide will help you decide:
Check if you are eligible for legal aid.
Whilst there is no longer legal aid for a lawyer or solicitor to help your case – unless you have been a victim of domestic abuse – there is legal aid available for family mediation. You can find out here.
If you are on a low income, or on certain qualifying benefits, you can have your family mediation fees paid for you (up to a limit) and the other party will also have their initial meeting (called a MIAM) and their first joint mediation appointment paid for – even if they don’t qualify for legal aid themselves.
To find a family mediation service in London that does offer legal aid, we suggest using the Family Mediation Council search tool here. You can put in your post code and select ‘provides mediation funded by legal aid’ to find a list of family mediators near you. This service can also be used to make sure your London family mediator is correctly registered with the governing body. If they are not, we strongly advice you avoid using them as you will not be covered should things go wrong.
Check if the family mediator is full-time
You may wish to have a lawyer or even a barrister carry out your family mediation. Do bear in mind that neither can offer legal advice, suggest a solution that you should take, or act for either party. You will usually be paying a higher hourly rate for someone’s legal expertise that they cannot use in your mediation sessions. They will also not be able to act for either of you if mediation breaks down, so you will need to find a new solicitor to represent you. We recommend getting good legal advice and using an experienced and accredited family mediator in London that you can relate to.
Get a personal recommendation or check reviews online
The outcome from your family mediation can impact you and any children for many years into the future. Decisions on child arrangements, pension division and spousal maintenance for example can impact your life significantly – and even for twenty years into your futre. It is important that you not only reach a fair and good agreement, but you also get the choice of family mediator right from the start.
Most services will have good reviews and testimonials on their website, but do check independent review collection sites such as google, facebook, trust pilot and reviews.io for genuine customer reviews.
Consider if you want to do mediation online or in person
We are finding that more people wish to hold their initial meeting, the MIAM, online but want to mediate the joint sessions face to face. If this is important to you, then you will need to choose a London family mediation service that has offices throughout London, that you can easily get to.
Is the London mediation service offering vouchers?
The government has recently announced that it is extending the family mediation voucher scheme through to 2025. The scheme, which is not means tested, gives London mediation services that are signed up to the scheme, £500 towards your joint mediation costs. You need to be discussing some element of child arrangements as part of your mediation to qualify. Not all services are able to offer this, so do check with them first.
What happens at the end of mediation?
It is worthwhile looking at what happens if you reach an agreement through family mediation. Do you want to make your agreement legally binding and if so, can the mediation service help with this? Many family mediators will ask you to find a solicitor to manage your legal paperwork, so it is worth looking at the cost of this and factoring it in. You can also ask what the success rate is for helping clients to reach an agreement. As a guide, the national average is 74%. If they don’t know the answer, then that may be a red flag. Mediate UK are able to offer fixed fee legal and mediation packages to help you budget during your divorce or separation.
Family Mediation London – Mediate UK
We understand it is important to shop around to try and find the best family mediation service in London. Mediate UK do not offer legal aid to clients – so do look at the family mediation council website to find services that offer this if you do qualify for legal aid.
If you don’t qualify for legal aid and you are looking for family mediation in London, we would ask you to consider Mediate UK’s London mediation service for the following reasons:
- Face to face and/or online family mediation in London available throughout the week
- Experienced solicitor or legally trained and fully accredited family mediators who only operate as family mediators
- 100% Guarantee – if you are not happy with your mediator after your MIAM we will change for free.
- Fixed fee mediation and legal packages – we can make your agreement legally binding as part of the service.
- 90% of our joint mediation cases in London go on to reach an agreement. The national average is just 74%
- We provide fixed fee legal advice reports on your case
- We are the top-rated family mediation service in London
- Mediate UK are a multi award-winning London family mediation service
About your Family Mediators, London
Chris has over ten years’ experience of family mediation. Chris is a non-practising solicitor, having practised in both family and criminal law.
He is a member of Resolution and along with face to face and online family mediation in London, he can also offer facilitation, where you want your agreement sense checked by an independent expert.
Tamsin is an accredited family mediator and has a CILEX legal diploma. She is passionate about helping couples reach an agreement and offers family mediation in person at our Sutton mediation office and online throughout London.
Tamsin is one of the longest service mediators with Mediate UK.
Our London Mediation Offices
We have offices located in:
Waterloo, London
St Pancras, London
Sutton, Surrey
Online, throughout London
Want to find out more about Family Mediation London?
We offer a completely free and no obligation 15-minute consultation. You can ask any questions you may have about family mediation London, how the process works, what is required and how we can help make your agreement legally binding to protect you in the future.
You can book your free consultation here, or just give us a call on 0330 999 0959. We are happy to help answer your questions.
Whichever service you end up choosing for your family mediation London, the team at Mediate UK wish you all the best in resolving your issues and in your future.
