“Where lawyers (and/or financial professionals, family consultants and other advisers) and mediators work closely together, the outcomes for clients are likely to be improved and all professionals involved stand to gain ……………………. as a result” – Resolution Mediation Handbook 2021
“People come to mediation to achieve a cost-effective fair outcome and any family professionals involved need to mutually support and facilitate this objective” – Author, Divorce Manual
During the financial mediation process how can your solicitors support you and your former partner to succeed in mediation, saving you £1000’s, an enormous amount of time and reduced levels of anxiety and stress?
In this chapter and video series, we set out how we believe solicitors can best support you and your former partner, in the most effective way, at each stage of the financial mediation process, looking at the mediation process in 5 main stages.
You might find it useful to refer to the financial documents in the Resource section of- Financial agreements in mediation- 5 stages, many of which are referred to in this chapter.
Focusing on each stage, we will set out what the solicitors can do to support you and your former partner, why this is important and how this can be done in the most efficient and effective way, providing you and your former partner with the most appropriate and relevant support, as you both move through the mediation process, gathering and understanding information, exploring options, reaching your own decisions and constructing your own agreements, together.
The Supported Mediation Model (‘Mediation Teaming’)
We call this mediation model ‘supported financial mediation’ (solicitor supported financial mediation), recognising that the most effective mediations are those where the family professionals, whether Solicitors, Coaches, Accountants, Financial Advisers, Actuaries or Child experts:
- Understand the mediation process, how it works and its benefits.
- Are very clear about their specific roles at each stage in the mediation process (see instructions to pension experts and guide to instructing business experts in the relevant chapters)
- Understand the purpose of mediation and what you are trying to achieve so that they can help you achieve it.
- Are prepared to work together, with you, and the other family professionals, where necessary, in the most effective, cohesive, joined up and cost effective way, to help you achieve this.
It is also ideal if the expert(s) you are using know the particular mediator helping you and how they work, creating a more cohesive and joined up problem-solving team.
We refer to this process of working together with other family professionals, around the mediation process, as ‘Mediation Teaming’.
We have all heard this before but it is worth reminding ourselves of the acronym TEAM:
‘Together, Everyone, Achieves, More.’
In essence, family mediators are constantly considering, at every stage of the mediation process, what each client needs in terms of additional resources and professional expert support to enable their clients to feel and be able to reach important decisions for themselves and together, whether this relates to their future financial arrangements or, indeed Parenting plans and decisions about their children.
Mediators not only help their clients to improve their communication during mediation they also build and facilitate the right professional team around the nature of the practical, emotional and psychological challenges to be overcome in mediation.
For the purposes of this chapter, exploring how solicitors can support you in a Financial mediation, we divide the mediation process into the following 5 stages with one section covering each stage.
5 Stages
- The pre-mediation preparation stage
- The financial disclosure stage, which we go into much more detail in the chapter- Full and Frank disclosure
- Preparing and supporting clients to explore their financial options in mediation.
- Working with financial experts, which may involve pensions and business interests, for example (please have a look at the chapters on these subjects including pensions and business interests)
- Implementing mediated financial proposals
We divide each stage into the main objectives, respectfully suggesting some good approaches and pointing out some potential pitfalls or challenges to overcome, when working with your solicitors and other experts, in mediation.