Agreement to
Mediate
BASIC PRINCIPLES AND TERMS OF MEDIATION
The following are the terms on which this mediation is undertaken. At the first joint mediation meeting
you will be asked to sign this document as an indication of your commitment to the process and of your
agreement to the terms set out below.
Mediation Organisation and Code of Practice
1.
Mediators for New Landscape Mediation undertake this mediation as a member of Family
Mediation Council and/or Resolution. In doing so the organisation is guided and bound by the
Codes of Practice approved by our professional bodies.
Mediator's professional capacity and functions
2.
Your mediator undertakes this mediation separately from any legal practice or other third party
organisations. Legal advice or direct representation will not be given but instead your mediator will
work in an impartial way to help you arrive at your own decisions. In addition your mediator will
nether jointly nor individually make judgments about your individual or joint situation. They may,
however, provide limited legal or other information on an even-handed basis.
3.
Your mediator’s role is to assist you both to consider possible ways of resolving any issues that you
may have or of making future arrangements for yourselves and any children. You will receive help
in exploring the options available to you, with a view to your reaching a resolution that you both
consider appropriate to your circumstances. That may not necessarily be the same conclusion that
might be arrived at by the court. If practicable you will be told if the mediator considers that your
proposed terms are likely to fall outside of the parameters that a court might approve.
4.
You will be not told what you should do, neither will you be advised about what your “best
interests” are or might be. The choices and decisions are yours. You are free to take independent
legal advice from your solicitor during the mediation process in order to make informed decisions
and to keep your respective advisers informed as to progress. Your mediator will help you to
consider when legal advice outside the meeting is appropriate.
No conflict of interests
5.
Mediation cannot take place if prior knowledge of the situation through a previous involvement in
any other professional role exists. If any conflict, potential conflict or perceived conflict of interest
arises or emerges, New Landscape Mediation will not be able to continue to act in assisting you.
Confidentiality and privilege
6.
All matters in the mediation will be treated as confidential. There are however specific exceptions
to this confidentiality where an obligation to notify relevant authorities may arise should any of the
following become known to your mediator:
Cases where it appears that a child or other person is suffering or likely to suffer significant
harm.
Cases where information is communicated to your mediator with the intention of
furthering a criminal purpose.
Matters that fall under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘the Act’), The Terrorism Act 2000,
the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 and Money Laundering Regulations 2003
and 2007
In the event of any of the above becoming applicable, prior to any action being taken by your
mediator, as far as practicable and appropriate, the action will be discussed with you both before
contacting any relevant authority/ies in line with the Mediation Code(s) of Practice under which
New Landscape Mediation works. You are asked to agree that the mediation and any summaries
may be reviewed on a strictly confidential basis by a Professional Practice Consultant/Supervisor
and/or other appointee of my mediation organisation and that anonymised details about your case
may be used for mediation training purposes.
7.
Information, written or oral, which either of you may provide will not ordinarily be maintained
confidentially between yourselves, except any address or telephone number either of you ask your
mediator to keep private, or otherwise as you may both agree with your mediator.
8.
All financial information is provided on an "open" basis, which means that it can be used in court.
This may be in support of a consent application made by either of you or in contested proceedings.
Such disclosure will assist your individual legal adviser and will avoid information having to be
provided twice over. This reinforces the importance of full and accurate disclosure as prior to your
individual legal or financial adviser being able to advise you on any settlement terms, he/she will
need to check with you as to the completeness and accuracy of all information received.
9.
Communications about possible options, proposals and terms of financial settlement are
conducted on a "without prejudice" basis, so cannot be referred to in court. You both agree not to
call your mediator (and/or any co-mediator if applicable) to give evidence in court, nor will you
seek to have any mediation notes brought into evidence.
10.
In order to comply with the obligations as to client identification, you will each need to supply a
photocopy of your passport (photograph page) or driving licence, together with an original utility or
credit card bill showing your current address which is not less than three months old.
Financial and other information
11.
You both undertake to provide complete and accurate disclosure of all your financial
circumstances, with supporting documents where necessary. Your mediator will help you to
identify what information and documents would help the resolution of any issues, and to consider
how best these may be obtained.
12.
The financial information provided during the disclosure process will not be verified for
completeness or accuracy by your mediator. If either of you feel it is necessary however, assistance
can be provided to help you to consider the ways in which you may make such enquiries or obtain
such verification throughout the course of mediation. You will be asked to sign and date a
statement in the Open Financial Statement confirming that you have made a full disclosure. If it
should emerge that full disclosure has not been made, any agreements flowing from the proposals
reached in mediation based on materially incomplete information could in some cases be set aside
and the issues re-opened.
Professional advice and qualified nature of agreements
13.
Any significant decisions arrived at in mediation (including any settlement proposals) will not
ordinarily be turned into a binding agreement until you have each had the opportunity to seek
advice on them from your separate legal advisers. However, decisions on matters that are not
materially significant to your respective positions or to the substantive outcome, may be entered
into as binding agreements without legal advice. If during the course of the mediation it would be
helpful to draw up an Interim Summary on a without prejudice basis to record interim decisions on
minor matters or options/proposals discussed, this can be done for you. As with the rest of the
mediation process, such a document would be privileged and could not be produced in evidence to
a court.
14.
Mediation meetings are commonly conducted without lawyers present. However, your legal
advisers may, by agreement between you both and your mediator, participate in the mediation
process in any useful and appropriate way.
15.
During mediation, it may become evident to your mediator that assistance from other
professionals such as accountants, expert valuers, counsellors or therapists might be beneficial to
the process. Should this occur, no such assistance will be sought without full discussion with you
both and your express consent. Should the assistance of a third party professional be arranged
during the mediation process, any fees or charges resulting from that assistance or advice will be
separate from the costs of mediation and payable by yourselves.
Summaries and recording of agreements
16.
During the course of the mediation, usually once financial disclosure is complete, your mediator
will ordinarily draw up:An Open Financial Statement/Summary of your financial circumstances which will be on the
record (and could be used in evidence in a court if need be).
17.
At the end of the mediation (or earlier if appropriate), your mediator will also ordinarily draw up:
A privileged summary called a Memorandum of Understanding of your mutually acceptable
proposals for the settlement of matters discussed in the mediation, outlining the context in
which those proposals have been reached. This is a without prejudice document.
In the event of this mediation being conducted for matters involving children only, your mediator
will instead draw up an Outcome Statement confirming the terms of the outcome of the
mediation.
These documents are generally provided to enable you both to obtain separate and independent
legal and/or other advice before entering into a legally binding agreement. You will need such
independent advice to assess how the proposed settlement terms may affect your own individual
position.
Complaints and Compliance
18.
New Landscape Mediation trusts that the work you do with your mediator is fully satisfactory to
you both. Any concern you may have as to the practice as a whole or the service provided by your
mediatory should be referred to the practice manager in the first instance. If we are unable to
resolve this with you directly or otherwise, any complaint you have will be referred to the Family
Mediation Council. Please let your mediator know if you would like a copy of the Complaints and
Compliance Rules and these will be provided to you.
Termination of mediation
19.
Under the Code(s) of Practice to which New Landscape Mediation subscribes, your mediator will
seek to ensure that you are each enter into the mediation process able to discuss and plan freely
together and without risk of threat or harm. We ask that you inform your mediator if there are
concerns for you about your ability to enter discussions freely.
20.
Either of you may terminate the mediation at any stage however your mediator may also
terminate the process if it is felt that it not be would appropriate or helpful to continue for any
reason. In either such event, this will be discussed with you in detail and New Landscape Mediation
will work with you directly in identifying other options available to you.
Mediation fees
21.
Fees are payable at the end of each session or as otherwise arranged with each party responsible
for their own costs. Fees for all types of mediation are charged at a flat rate of £90.00 per hour, per
person. Depending on the issues for discussion in mediation, 3 to 5 sessions of 2 hours each are
commonly required, but more or less may be needed. Once you have arranged dates for future
mediation sessions, if these are cancelled, a cancellation charge of 50% will be required for
sessions cancelled within 3 days of the meeting with the full amount required for meetings
cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice.
As standard, New Landscape Mediation requests that each party provide credit/debit card details
to be held on file. Session fees can then be charged to these cards as agreed during the initial
meeting. Payment for each mediation session will be due on the day of the session.
22.
There is a separate charge for drafting documents or in reviewing financial disclosure. For Finance
& Property mediation and Child Only Mediation this charge will remains the same as a single, 2
hour session or £180.00 per person. For All Issues Mediation involving both Finance and Children,
the fee for outcome documents is £220.00 per person.
23.
If your issues are particularly complicated or you require interim documentation for consultation
with your personal adviser/s, these can normally be completed free of charge, but New Landscape
Mediation reserves the right to impose a fee for interim documents on a case by case basis. A
detailed fee structure will be provided to you during your initial confidential Mediation Information
Assessment Meeting (MIAM).
Mutual commitment
24.
Your mediator will do their best to help you both. We ask you both to give your commitment to the
mediation process and to co-operate as fully as possible in looking for workable solutions.
Dated the
day of
2015
…………………………………………..
Family Mediator
We agree to the above terms which we have read and understood:
Signed: ……………………………………….
Signed: ……………………………..
Date: …………………………………………..
Date: ………………………………..