Family Mediation
Mediation works because it helps you find practical solutions that feel fair.
Our mediators are trained professionals who help to sort out disputes about arrangements for children and finances, which can happen after people decide to divorce or separate. They help you talk things through with your ex-partner and find ways to make things work for the future. Mediation is not about trying to get you back together.
Mediation takes less time, is less-expensive and provides better outcomes than drawn-out court hearings.
Mediation is less stressful than going to court, especially for children.
Mediation works because it helps people find practical solutions that feel fair. Mediation gives you more say in what happens - in court, a judge will make the decision based on his or her assessment of the case.
People often come to see a mediator as a first step when they decide to separate or divorce. You can ask for legal advice at any stage in the mediation process. It is straightforward to make decisions in mediation legally binding.
Our mediators provide mediation in separate spaces (also known as ‘shuttle’ mediation), if required. Separate Spaces mediation is when the participants sit in separate rooms during the meetings so that they do not have to meet with their ex.
Elaine is trained to see children in mediation, separately from their parents.
Our mediators offer hybrid mediation, which means that the mediator can hold confidences to assist with negotiation and you can involve your solicitors in the mediation meetings.
The first stage of mediation is to book a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (known as a MIAM) with us. This is your individual confidential meeting with the mediator. Each person has an individual MIAM first to assess if mediation is suitable for them. If the conclusion of all three participants is that mediation is suitable, a first mediation meeting is arranged.
Collaborative Law
Elaine is an experienced specialist collaborative lawyer.
Collaborative Law is a way for separating couples to work together as a team with their own trained collaborative lawyers to negotiate an agreement on all the issues in a respectful way, without going to court.
All negotiations take place in face to face meetings. Both clients attend these meetings with their collaborative lawyers, so that each client has built-in legal advice, support, and guidance from their own specialist family solicitor.
As well as your collaborative lawyer, you will have the opportunity to work with other experts, such as independent financial advisors, family consultants and accountants. These professionals can make up part of your collaborative team.
You and your team sign an agreement that commits everyone to resolving the issues without going to court. This means that everyone is committed to finding the best solutions by agreement, rather than going to court.
The time frame for doing the work is yours, rather than a timetable imposed by a court. The agendas for the collaborative meetings are set by you and your ex-partner, with assistance from your collaborative lawyers. Once an agreement is reached, your lawyers will put it into effect and make it legally binding.
Family Solicitor Services
We are experienced family law professionals and we work to keep family disputes out of court first and foremost.
When Elaine works with you as your solicitor, she will focus on your interests and negotiate with your ex-partner’s legal representative. Many cases reach a conclusion without going to court.
Elaine works with Taylor Rose Solicitors as a consultant solicitor and she can meet with you online or at the Taylor Rose offices in London.
Arbitration
Family arbitration has developed to enable people to resolve disputes more quickly, confidentially, cheaply and in a more flexible and less formal setting than a courtroom. Family arbitration can also be applied to a specific aspect of a dispute, so that if you and your ex-partner agree on most other matters but cannot resolve one particular issue, this one issue can be the subject of the arbitration. In this way, family arbitration is certainly a more attractive alternative to going to court.
In family arbitration you and your ex-partner appoint an arbitrator, usually with the help of a lawyer. We can help you find the right arbitrator for your case and get costs and time estimates.
An arbitrator can make a decision about finance and property issues, and some disputes about your children. The decision the arbitrator makes, after listening to all the evidence, is binding. The timetable is up to you and your ex-partner to agree, so there will be flexibility about the time and place of the hearings.