posted 4th November 2024
The short answer is no: the court cannot make you mediate.
But the court can make you attend a meeting to find out about family mediation. And the court can make certain orders if it thinks you are refusing to engage in mediation without good reason.
Requirement to find out about family mediation
The court requires you go to a mediation information and assessment meeting (a MIAM) with a family mediator before you can make an application to the court for an order concerning children, or for a financial order on divorce. This is a confidential meeting with just you and the mediator: the mediator will not tell your ex-partner what you said (and vice versa). The point of the meeting is for you to find out about family mediation (and other non-court ways of sorting things out)* and to work out, together with the mediator, whether mediation is suitable and safe in your situation.
No requirement to actually mediate
The court cannot make you mediate with your ex-partner. Family mediation is voluntary : mediation will only take place if you want to mediate, your ex-partner wants to mediate, and the mediator thinks that it is suitable.
Powers of the court where people refuse to engage in mediation without good reason
- The court can require you to explain (via the new FM5 court form) why you have not engaged in mediation or why, if you have attended mediation, you are in court.
- The court can pause court proceedings to give you and your ex-partner time to engage in mediation*
- The court can order that you pay some of your ex-partner’s legal costs if it finds you have unreasonably refused to engage in mediation* without good reason
*Or some other non-court method of resolving the issues between you (the court calls this non-court dispute resolution or NCDR). This includes family mediation, arbitration, neutral evaluation (e.g. private financial dispute resolution or FDR) and collaborative law.
If you would like to find out more about an assessment meeting, or book one in, please get in touch.
