Mediation Awareness Week - Success Stories

Following on from our Mediation Awareness Week article. Here are a couple of recent mediation success stories from Forbes Solicitors:

We were recently instructed by a father who had 3 children his ex-wife, of varying ages. The marriage ended abruptly when the wife told him she wanted to divorce. The father left the family home and they tried to agree arrangements for him seeing the children. It was difficult because the temporary accommodation where he was staying was not sufficient for the 3 children to stay overnight regularly. The arrangements then broke down completely with the wife telling our client he could no longer see the children. He came to us for advice. Whilst we wrote to the wife to try and encourage an agreement to be reached, we also referred the client to a local mediator. They wrote to the wife who agreed to attend mediation. An assessment session was carried out by the mediator who deemed it suitable. They attended the initial sessions separately then held 2 further sessions as joint sessions. The mediator kept us informed of the progress they were making and we were able to give the client legal advice alongside the process. They reached a final agreement without having to attend court. This meant a much swifter and less expensive outcome was reached, without the stress and anxiety of having to attend court.

We regularly have clients who consult us regarding a financial settlement when a marriage breaks down. We start by giving advice based upon the individual circumstances once we know the value of the marital assets.

We had a client recently who obtained initial legal advice from us then attended mediation with his wife. They provided financial disclosure to each other, and the mediator, before engaging in joint sessions. They quicky narrowed down the issues and the client came back to us with the progress. We gave him further advice before he attended the next session. He and his wife reached an agreement which the mediator drew up in to a document. We were then able to draft the terms of the agreement in to a court order for submitting to the court as an agreed order, thus finalising the settlement.

If you are thinking about attending mediation or have already attended mediation with your ex-partner and want to discuss and finalise your agreement, please get in touch with the Family department at Forbes Solicitors on 0333 207 1130, and we will be happy to assist you.