Barker Gotelee is able to offer a mediation service for people looking for an alternative to the traditional court approach or the collaborative process for resolving issues that have arisen within their family due to relationship breakdown.

Our mediator, Nicola Furmston, can act as an independent and impartial third party, to help you and the person with whom you have had a relationship to make independent arrangements for yourselves and/or any children that you have, whether you are divorcing, dissolving a civil partnership, ceasing to live together or have lived apart for some time.

Mediation can cover a range of issues, for example whether you will divorce or separate, how your assets and income will be divided and what will happen to your children. The process is designed to help you to explore fully the issues affecting you, assist you in communicating and enable you to reach decisions. It can be a process ‘for life’ in that it can help you resolve any family crisis at any time.

If you choose mediation it will take place over a number of sessions. At the first session you will be asked to complete a form giving some background and historical information about you and your family. Nicola will hold an introductory meeting with you both to find out what you need help with. If you are seeking help with resolving financial information you will both take away and complete a form setting out details of your income, assets and outgoings. The sessions that take place after this concentrate on finding areas of agreement between you and solutions to areas of dispute.

Nicola is a qualified lawyer but when acting as a mediator she will not give you legal advice. You may take legal advice from your lawyer at any time during the process and mediation is often more successful if you do take regular legal advice. Barker Gotelee cannot act for or advise either of you as lawyers if we are providing a mediation service to you.

At the end of the process you will receive a written Memorandum of Understanding, confirming the decisions you have made, and a Summary of Financial Information. If you wish, those decisions can be embodied in a court order, but it will be your responsibility to take the Memorandum and the Summary to your lawyer who will do this for you.

We charge £100 per hour per person for mediation. Generally, people find mediation a cost effective process because the hourly rate per person is lower than is usually charged for traditional litigation or the collaborative process. However, the actual cost is determined by the number of sessions required, the extent of the financial assets involved and the complexity of the issues.

Mediation is a voluntary process and at any time either person may withdraw from it. However, most people find that it is worth persevering with, as decisions made by couples themselves, rather than by a judge, are much more likely to work long-term.

If you would like to find out more about mediation, please telephone Nicola on 01473 617339.

Alternatively please complete our online enquiry form quoting ‘mediation’ in the box entitled “What do you need help with”.