Thomas More Chambers offers the full selection of Alternative Dispute Resolution to resolve family disputes, whether they are disagreements about divorce, money or children and whether the parties are married or not. Members of Chambers are fully qualified to arbitrate and mediate family disputes as well as offering Collaborative law and Private FDRs and Early Neutral Evaluation.

Thomas More Chambers Family ADR team provides professional dispute resolution methods and techniques to enable dispute settlement and conflict resolution.

Whatever type of dispute resolution you are considering it is always wise to seek some basic legal advice in addition.

Family Mediation

Mediation is an opportunity for people who are in dispute about family matters to make arrangements for the future in relation to finances and/or for parenting their children. A family mediator will facilitate discussions between two or more parties to a dispute so that they can consider their options and propose solutions in a calm and measured environment. A mediator cannot impose an outcome on the clients who are always the ultimate decision makers when arriving at a mutually acceptable outcome. A real advantage to this process is the confidentiality it offers. In addition, anything said in mediation cannot generally be referred to in Court save in exceptional circumstances.

Parties can choose to bring their lawyers to mediation and can also choose to mediate on line. Equally, mediation can be conducted such that the parties do not remain in the same room together if they would prefer to remain in separate rooms.

The mediation sessions can be an all day session or shorter sessions depending upon the nature of the dispute and whether lawyers are also attending.

Prior to any mediation commencing the parties will need to have an assessment session with the Mediator to ensure that the matter is indeed suitable to be mediated. At the end of the mediation meetings a Memorandum of Understanding will be drawn up by the mediator which can be shown the parties’ lawyers.

Encouraging the use of mediation assists in the resolution of disputes and helps to avoid the worry, time and cost associated with adversarial court-based litigation. On average mediation costs are much less expensive and much faster according to a report by the National Audit Office. Mediation is also expressly encouraged within the Family Proceedings Rules 2010.

Sarah Cooper is a Resolution trained Family Mediator who mediates both children and financial disputes. She also has experience of conducting mediations in Spanish. Fiona Edington is a Family Mediation Association with experience mediating a wide range of family disputes. Tracy Bird is a CEDR trained mediator.

Family Arbitration

Arbitration differs from mediation in that it results in a binding decision which is capable of being made into an order by the Court.

Parties choose an arbitrator who will then consider the disputes and how best they might be resolved. This will normally involve parties giving evidence in a similar way to a court hearing. An award in financial cases or determination in children cases is then written up by the Arbitrator which the parties can invite the Court to make into an order, thereby providing certainly for the future.

The arbitration process is generally far faster than the Court process and the meetings can take place at times and in locations for the convenience of the parties and their lawyers. Arbitrations can also be conducted on line. All arbitrations are also entirely confidential to the parties.

Sarah is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and fully qualified to conduct arbitrations both in relation to financial disputes and in relation to children. As a part time Circuit Judge since 2018 (Recorder on the SE Circuit) Sarah has a great deal of experience in resolving family cases both in relation to finances and children. She is also a member of the panel of the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators.

Collaborative Law

Fiona is also a fully trained Resolution Collaborative Lawyer.

Private FDR and Early Neutral Evaluation

Members of chambers are experienced family lawyers with experience in conducting Private FDRs and giving a neutral indication of the likely outcome to both parties at Early Neutral Evaluation sessions in financial cases. This process can save parties a great deal of money and time.

For more information on any of the areas described above, please contact the clerks.