If you are on very low or no income we just ask for a donation of what you can afford. 

Even if you are paying our standard fees they are a fraction of the cost you would pay for lawyers to try and resolve your dispute through lawyer negotiation or to go to court.

How can you not afford our fees if it gives you the best chance to resolve your dispute quickly and without the stress and cost of going to court or a tribunal.   

On average over 80% of cases settle in mediation or shortly after.

Even if you are in the less than 20% of people who can’t reach a resolution in mediation you will have reached a better understanding of the issues, the other sides perspective, have some proposals on the table that you may be able to continue to work on or at least will understand your situation better. Clarity when you are in conflict is a very valuable thing and something we think is worth the investment and time to try mediation first. 

Unlike a judge or arbitrator the mediator can’t tell you what you have to do or force you to accept a resolution you don’t agree with.  you.   

Mediation is confidential and inadmissible which means it is safe to discuss, propose options and even try them out without penalty or having your proposals held against you.     

The first step is a confidential consultation to discuss your situation.  If you know already that mediation is appropriate you can skip straight to the pre-mediation. 

Pre-mediation is everything that happens, including a meeting with your mediators prior to any joint sessions with the other party. Both of you have to participate in a pre-mediation session before we can run a joint session. 

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

1. To clarify the issues and what has led up to them. This is to make sure that mediation is safe and appropriate dispute resolution process for your situation at this time. 
2. To determine any risks and vulnerabilities. This is to make sure that both of you are OK and that the mediation process is safe and supportive for you both. We may make referrals to other support services and resources if either of you are not OK. 
3. To determine if you understand your situation. Sometimes people are in conflict because they are trying to impose their beliefs or values on someone else who doesn’t share them.  We will help you to consider your perspectives and any advice you’ve had about you legal and/or financial position. If you haven’t had appropriate advice we will encourage you and can refer you to advisors who can assist. Mediators can’t provide legal or financial advice to you as it would be a conflict of interest and not appropriate for our role. We can provide you with legal information, help you to make sense of advice you’ve had and help you to identify gaps in your understanding of your situation. 
4. To help you to prepare for the mediation session.  Mediation is a facilitated negotiation process. Ideally one that involves collaborative negotiation where you both identify and can get what you need to be satisfied with the resolution of the dispute. That means you need to understand what really matters to you (your bottom lines) and what you are willing to compromise on.  What you think they want (and prepare to ask them if you don’t know) and to consider a range of proposals that include your best case scenario outcome and what you’re willing to live with in order to end the dispute. Really thinking about these things will make a big difference and our job is to help you to both prepare in this way. 

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

Request a free and obligation free call back to discuss your situation.

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 mediator we want to know about it.

You can but it really not recommended.

Mediation is a highly specialised skill that your mediators learn in order to become NMAS Accredited. For Family Law Mediation (Family Dispute Resolution) they have post graduate training. 

Even without taking into account the skills of the mediator there is a difference between someone who is a friend and has different relationships and loyalties to the people in dispute and an independent mediator. 

Our mediators don’t have a conflict of interest. They don’t know you and have been trained to avoid bias, deliberate or unconscious, so that the mediation process is a fair one.

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.

Lawyers often do negotiate on behalf of their clients however the fees that lawyers charge and the inefficiency of the process means you will be paying a lot more for that service compared to mediation.

Our hourly rate is only $242 compared to a lawyer who’ll typically charge two or three times as much and not use fixed fees e.g. they charge for every time they read anything, write anything, talk to anyone or even think about your case!

We offer a fixed fee for the pre-mediation and mediation stages which include all the reading, writing, talking and thinking that happens in the background!

The other big difference is that lawyer negotiation is adversarial and takes a bargaining approach where the focus is on reaching a compromise. Some lawyers say they know they have a deal when both sides are unhappy with it. 

Mediation is a collaborative negotiation approach that seeks to find common ground and mutual interests so that agreements reached are something that you both consider satisfactory taking into account the reality of your situation.  

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 non-Family Law mediators are all NMAS Accredited dispute resolution professionals.  Our family law mediators are all Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners. 

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.