Process

If one party or both parties have legal representatives then your lawyers will be familiar with the process of registering for a mediation and they will jointly make the arrangements with us.  Usually this involves the lawyers contacting our office for available dates that suit all parties and the mediator.  

We recognise that sometimes parties cannot afford lawyers or choose not to engage lawyers to assist them.  In those circumstances we can still assist parties and in fact we specialise in this type of “lawyer free” mediation.

Generally when you are thinking about mediation there will be two possible scenarios.  

In the first scenario you will have discussed attending mediation with your former partner and agree that you will both attend mediation together.  Here one of you will call our office to make the arrangements, or you might prefer to send a joint email and one of our team can get in touch.

In the second scenario it may be that it is just not that straight forward.  Quite often one party is ready to proceed and the other is either not ready or not aware that mediation is an option. Here, after you have contacted us, we can contact the other party and invite them to attend at mediation. If the other party agrees then we will arrange for the mediation to occur.

Once the mediation has been confirmed, whether you have lawyers acting for you or not, we will send out our mediation agreement.  This document explains our role and sets out the agreement between you, the other party and us to make a genuine attempt to resolve the matter.  The agreement provides information about the role of the mediator as well.  

Prior to mediation we will provide you with a link to an information video which will help you prepare for mediation and answer common questions which are usually covered in an intake call.

After viewing the video, if you require additional information about the mediation process or have questions relevant to your matter you may contact us to book a telephone intake session. There is no additional cost for intake sessions.

You will be asked to make payment for your mediation 21 days prior to the date of the mediation. The fees for either a half day (4 hours) or full day (8 hours) mediation will have been quoted to you and an invoice will have been issued. If you are sharing the fees with the other party we will issue two invoices for you to pay half each. If one party is paying the mediation fee one invoice will be issued. 

Though the invoice has been issued and paid, the money paid by you is held in our trust account until after the mediation is commenced.

In the event that the mediation is cancelled:

• Within 14 clear days of the allocated time and date of the mediation, a cancellation fee of $792 (inclusive of GST) shall be invoiced and deducted from the monies held in trust with the balance being refunded.
• Within 7 clear days of the allocated time and date of the mediation, a cancellation fee of 50% of the mediation fee (inclusive of GST) shall be invoiced and deducted from the monies held in trust with the balance being refunded.
• Within one business day of the allocated time and date of the mediation, a cancellation fee of the full mediation fee (inclusive of GST) will be charged and deducted from the monies held in trust.
• The cancellation fee will be invoiced within 7 days of notification of cancellation of the mediation event.  If no monies are held in trust the cancellation fee is due to be paid within 7 days. The fees will be apportioned to be payable by both parties in equal shares, unless other arrangements are agreed between the parties.

In the event the mediation is to be rescheduled, the following applies:

• Up until one business day prior to the allocated time and date of the mediation no cancellation fee will be payable provided the rescheduled date is confirmed by all parties in writing within 7 days, after which time cancellation invoices will be issued in line with the above.
• Within one business day of the of the allocated time and date of the mediation, a cancellation fee of 50% of the mediation fee (inclusive of GST) will be payable provided the rescheduled date is confirmed by all parties in writing within 7 days, after which time the full mediation fee (inclusive of GST) will be payable.

If your Mediation is in person in our Maroochydore rooms, you will be welcomed to our office by our friendly team. If your Mediation is by Microsoft Teams, you will receive the Teams links prior to the Mediation commencing.

If you have lawyers, your lawyers will be responsible for documenting your agreement.  Where you chose our “lawyer free” option we will assist you in preparing a heads of agreement and/or parenting plan and provide you with a referral to a local lawyer who can assist you in formally documenting your agreement as a consent order or financial agreement.