We have hardship arrangements in place. Contact our office to find out how we can help you to resolve the issues with professional fees that you can afford. 

If you are considering legal action, or the other side is, you will spend much more money on legal representation than you will working with our mediators to resolve the issues rather than battle it out in court. 

Mediation is a facilitative dispute resolution process. That means that unlike a judge or arbitrator the mediator can’t impose their solution on you.  Sometimes people don’t reach agreement in mediation although the majority of people do reach a full or partial resolution during mediation or as a result of mediation. 

If you don’t reach agreement you will at least find that due to the mediation you have greater clarity about what the other person wants in order to agree. They will have greater clarity about what you want. Each of you will have a greater understanding of how the other sees the issues (hint: they don’t see things the way you do)

Mediation is confidential and inadmissible which means it is safe to discuss, propose options and even try them out.  What is discussed in mediation stays in mediation unless you agree. 

The first step is always the pre-mediation process where the mediators and sometimes someone from our office, will contact and work with you to prepare for mediation. 

The main tasks that need to be completed before mediation are: 

1. to understand the issues to make sure that mediation is the appropriate dispute resolution process for your situation at this time. 
2. To determine any risks and vulnerabilities to make sure that the process is safe and supportive for you both
3. To work out if you understand your legal and/or financial position and refer you to advisors if you don’t know what your legal rights and obligations are
4. To help you to prepare  for the mediation session.  Remember that mediation is a facilitated negotiation process so helping you to prepare for negotiation is an important part of pre-mediation.

Payment for pre-mediation and mediation is made in advance unless an alternative arrangement is made. 

Pre-Mediation Information and booking link.

We can guarantee that our mediators will professionally facilitate your mediation process in a fair and unbiased way.

We can’t guarantee what type of agreement you reach or even whether you reach an agreement at all. 

That is because mediation is a self-determination process where you are in control of the outcomes.

We will do everything in our power to create the right environment for agreement but the ultimate decision about whether you will agree belongs to you. That is a good thing as it is you have to live with what is agreed. 

What we can guarantee is that we will undertake risk screening, refer you to  additional support and resources, that we will give you accurate and unbiased information and support during the process. 

If you don’t feel that you are treated fairly or that you were not properly informed by your practitioner we want to know about it.

The Agreement to Mediate explains the process and what you can expect.

Really not recommended.

Mediation is a highly specialised skill that your mediators learn in order to become NMAS Accredited. 

The other important thing about mediation is that it should be facilitated by someone who doesn’t have a conflict of interest. 

That means normally someone who doesn’t know either of you. 

If either of you does know the mediator they will usually not mediate unless that prior knowledge is discussed with you both and everyone agrees that it isn’t something likely to affect the fairness of the process.

Yes they can and if you can’t reach agreement in mediation you might have to try lawyer negotiation. 

Lawyers generally charge a lot more and their process is less efficient than mediation so lawyer negotiation will cost a lot more. 

Our hourly rate is only $242 so you can have a pre-mediation and a three hour mediation for less than $1,000. 

In many cases that is all you will need to reach an agreement that will allow you to move forward with a resolution. 

You are likely to spend that sort of money just telling the lawyer what the problem is and getting your first letter across to the other side.

The other big difference is that lawyer negotiation is adversarial and takes a bargaining approach. 

Mediation is a collaborative negotiation approach that seeks to find common ground and mutual interests so that agreements reached are agreed rather than forced by external pressures.

In most cases you can. Mediation is usually the recommended first step if you have a dispute about a contract.

When contracts are written they can’t plan for every eventuality, like a world wide pandemic for example.

It is possible you or the other person has not complied with the contract.  Mediation gives you a way to talk about the issues and try and work out a resolution. 

If you can’t you can still go to the relevant tribunal or court and you will be able to show that you have made every effort to sort things out amicably.

If you can sort it out in mediation you are likely to retain an otherwise good tenant, contractor, supplier or customer who you can work with to rebuild both of your businesses post-pandemic. 

Probably.  Our mediators are all NMAS Accredited dispute resolution professionals.

The court may have specified a service or process, if they have you have to follow the interim order. 

If they haven’t we would be happy to work with you and your lawyers (if you want them included in the process) to try and reach a negotiated settlement.