Solicitor supported mediation- Article 1 of 5

Part 1 of 5 weekly articles and 5 videos

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Q. How can your solicitors save you, rather than cost you, £1000’s when you separate?

A. By helping and supporting you to reach your own fair financial outcome, in mediation.

This series of articles and videos shows you and them how this can be achieved.

How can your solicitors, most effectively and efficiently, support you and your former partner, during the mediation process, saving you £1000’s, an enormous amount of time and reduce the level of stress you may otherwise experience.

Hi I am John Hind, mediator, former collaborative lawyer, trainer, coach and specialist in complex financial work, within mediated divorce and separation proceedings.

In this series and video, I set out how I believe solicitors can work together to most effectively support you, at each stage of the financial mediation process.

For this purpose, I break the financial mediation process into 5 main stages.

Focusing on each stage, I will set out, in this series of articles, what your solicitor can do, why this is important and how they can do it, in order to provide you and your former partner with the best support, as you both move through the mediation process, together.

I call this model ‘supported financial mediation’, recognising that the most effective mediations are those in which the family professionals involved, whether solicitors, accountants, financial advisers, pension experts or coaches, are all;

·        very clear about their roles in the process,

·        understand the purpose of mediation and what you are trying to achieve, and

·        are prepared to work together, with you, and the other family professionals, in a cohesive, joined up way, to help you achieve this.

I refer to this process of working together with other family professionals, around the mediation process, as ‘mediation teaming’.

We have all heard this before, I am sure, but it is worth repeating that TEAM stands for ‘ Together, Everyone Achieves More’

In essence, most mediators should consider, at every stage of the mediation process, what each client needs in terms of additional support resources and professional expert support, to enable them to feel confident and be able to reach important decisions for themselves and together, whether this relates to their future financial arrangements or, indeed, parenting plans.

For the purposes of this 5 week series I have broken the financial mediation process down into the following 5 stages, with a video covering each stage.

1.      The pre-mediation preparation stage

2.      The financial disclosure stage, which I go into much more detail in my video series- Financial disclosure Q&As

3.      Preparing clients to explore their financial option

4.      Working with financial experts, which may involve pensions and business interests, for example, and

5.      Implementing mediated financial agreements

For each of the 5 stages I provide the main objectives, suggest some good approaches, and point out some potential pitfalls or challenges, to overcome, when working with solicitors and other experts, in mediation.

So, I hope you enjoy these articles and videos over the 5 weeks.

The next article and video- The pre-mediation preparation stage- released on the 17th June