Spratt Endicott offers mediation for couples dealing with issues arising from the breakdown of their relationship. Mediation can help to break down barriers by allowing couples to resolve those issues of key importance to them, focussing on the future. We offer Family Mediation in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, including Banbury, Bicester, Brackley, Oxford, Northampton.
What is Family Mediation?
Mediation can provide positive methods of resolving disputes following the breakdown of a relationship by finding a mutually acceptable compromise.
The Spratt Endicott Family Mediation service is provided by a fully qualified solicitor who has undertaken rigorous training to qualify as a Resolution Trained Family Mediator. This is what makes Resolution mediators special in that as lawyers they understand the law as well as having mediation skills.
Mediators are impartial and do not tell you what is best for you. Mediation helps you by:
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ensuring you can express what is most important to you.
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ensuring you are heard and taken seriously.
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reducing and managing tension and conflict.
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having the needs and feelings of children firmly in mind.
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assisting you to consider all the options and how they would operate
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allowing you to make your own decisions that suit your circumstances
Mediation is completely confidential. When you reach the end of the mediation process you can ask the mediator to record the outcome in writing.
How Can Mediation Help?
Family Mediation helps:
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former partners make realistic decisions concerning their lives after separation including children’s arrangements and finances.
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other members of the family affected by the breakdown of the relationship.
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ensure the children’s needs are central in any decisions that may affect them.
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to keep communications and co-operation going.
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at any time whether the relationship breakdown happened recently or in the past.
What’s Involved in the Process?
Either one or both partners can contact Spratt Endicott Family Mediation to discuss the process. In some cases they are refered by their own solicitor.
The first stage is an introductory meeting on your own or together with your former partner if you both prefer. This meeting is obligation free. You meet your mediator, find out what mediation is, talk about the issues you wish to resolve and decide if mediation is the right course for you. We can contact the other person and offer them the same introductory meeting if required.
During the mediation process proper you will probably have a number of sessions together with the mediator - typically five or six session lasting from one and a half to two hours each is not uncommon - to help you reach agreement. However, as each case is individual it could be more or less than this.
When you are both content with the solutions you have reached we will offer to draft a Mediation summary recording these.
We encourgage both parties to consult with their own solicitor at any time during the process to take partial advice on what is best for you.
You are welcome to return to mediation at any stage. Mediation can provide a “safety net” for you to review matters as and when it would be helpful.
Working Together
Resolution mediators usually mediate alone but can, if you prefer, work in twos. Sometimes the second mediator is also a counsellor, who can provide additional help when emotions run high.
The Right Choice for You
Mediation is especially helpful where couples disagree about the future welfare of their children. Skilled mediators can help couples maintain their focus on what is best for the children, so they can more likely reach agreement for the benefit of all concerned.
Options Meeting
To help you decide which is the best solution for you we offer a free, 20 minute meeting for either an individual or a couple to discuss their family law options, including mediation, collaborative law and the traditional, lawyer-led route. We do not provide advice at Options Meetings, but simply give information to help people decide their next steps.
Getting in touch
For more information on our Family Mediation service, please call Patrick Mulcare on 01295 204148 or email pmulcare@se-law.co.uk.