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15 December 2017 / Caroline Bowden
Issue: 7774 / Categories: Features , Mediation , Family
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Mediation: a better route to a good settlement?

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Solicitors & mediators should work in tandem, says Caroline Bowden​.

  • Mediators should draft consent orders, or to an equivalent level of detail, at the end of financial mediations.
  • Mediators need robust standards throughout to enable coherent, balanced and certain settlement proposals to be turned into a legally binding outcome.
  • The Government’s review of LASPO has the opportunity to embed this as a culture change, to reverse some of the current problems.

The Family Mediation Council (FMC) decided at the beginning of 2017 to put out three questions for consultation:

  • Would the role of a mediator as an impartial third party in mediation be jeopardised by that mediator drafting a consent order, once a mediated agreement has been reached?
  • Is it possible to draft a consent order without giving advice on its terms?
  • Is it appropriate to draft a consent order without giving parties advice on its terms?

At the end of the year, they reported on the rather obvious conclusion that the consultation ‘did not produce

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