Most people arrive knowing something is wrong and not knowing what to ask for. Answer these and we will tell you which process fits, what happens in it, and roughly how long it takes. Nothing is recorded and you do not have to give us your name.
It does not give legal advice and it does not assess your case. It tells you which kind of process fits your situation. If you need someone to tell you where your matter stands legally, you need a lawyer, and we will point you to free and low cost options.
Family, elder, and property and financial matters, across Australia, in person or online. Run by a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner and an AMDRAS registered mediator. Both registrations are public and you are welcome to check them before you engage.
Parenting arrangements after separation, and the section 60I certificate you generally need before a court will accept a parenting application. Where the other parent will not take part, you still get a certificate, and that does not count against you.
Enquire about this →Care and accommodation decisions, siblings who cannot agree about a parent, powers of attorney, and estate tensions, addressed before they become litigation. The older person is in the room, not spoken about in their absence.
Enquire about this →Separating couples, co-owners, and family members dividing assets. Confidential, faster than a court list, and you decide the outcome rather than handing it to a judge who has met neither of you.
Enquire about this →Mediation is not right for every situation and we would rather say so at intake than take your money. Where there is family violence or a real fear of the other party, where someone is being coerced, where a matter is urgent enough to need a court order this week, or where a party lacks the capacity to negotiate, mediation should not proceed in its ordinary form. There are exemptions in the legislation for exactly those circumstances, and we will tell you about them.
Point them at mediationhouse.au/#invited. It answers the questions people are reluctant to ask the person inviting them, neutrally, and it is far more likely to get a yes than trying to explain it yourself.
Contract, supply, shareholder, franchise and workplace matters run through our commercial arm, Alternative Dispute Resolutions, rather than here.
Every matter starts the same way, with a confidential conversation with each person separately. That intake is not a formality. It is where we work out whether mediation is safe and appropriate at all.
Usually thirty to forty five minutes. What the dispute is about, what each of you needs, whether there is anything that would make sitting down together unsafe, and what it will cost. Nothing you say is passed to the other person.
If mediation is not suitable, we say so and explain what is available instead, including the exemptions that may apply and where to get free advice. If it is suitable, we set a date and tell you how the session will run.
In person or online, together in one room or in separate rooms with the mediator moving between you. Shuttle is ordinary and asking for it is not an admission of anything. Support people and lawyers can attend where that helps.
An agreement recorded in writing, or, in a parenting matter, the section 60I certificate that reflects what happened. Either way you are not stuck. A mediated agreement is not automatically a court order, so take it to your own lawyer if you want it formalised.
What is said in family dispute resolution is confidential and generally not admissible in court. That is the whole reason people can speak frankly in it. There are limits, and you should hear them now rather than discover them later. A practitioner must disclose information where there are reasonable grounds to believe a child needs protection from harm, where there is a serious and imminent threat to someone's life, health or property, or where disclosure would prevent the commission of an offence involving violence. The certificate itself also goes to the court. Outside those, what is said in the room stays in the room.
Quoted at intake before you commit, as a fixed fee wherever the matter allows it, so there is no hourly meter running while you think. Costs are most often shared between the parties, which keeps the mediator visibly independent of both. Other arrangements are possible where everyone agrees, and we raise it at intake rather than let it become its own dispute.
Legal Aid commissions and Family Relationship Centres fund family dispute resolution at no cost or low cost for people who qualify. If that is a better fit for you than paying us, we will tell you, and we will tell you where to apply. The national Family Relationship Advice Line is 1800 050 321.
You did not choose this, and you probably have questions you would rather not ask the person who invited you. Here are straight answers. The mediator acts for neither of you, so this page is written the same way.
No. Mediation is voluntary and nobody can make you sit in a room.
But if this is about children, there is a consequence worth knowing before you decide. If you do not attend, the practitioner can issue a certificate recording that, and the other person can then apply to a court. The decisions still get made. They just get made by a judge, without your input, and at considerably more cost to both of you.
Declining does not stop the process. It removes you from it.
Generally no. What is said in family dispute resolution is confidential, and it is generally not admissible in court. That is the whole reason people can speak frankly in it.
There are limits, and you should hear them now rather than discover them later. A practitioner must disclose information where there are reasonable grounds to believe a child needs protection from harm, where there is a serious and imminent threat to someone's life, health or property, or where disclosure would prevent violence. The certificate itself also goes to the court.
Outside those, what is said in the room stays in the room.
Neither. A mediator cannot give either of you advice, cannot decide anything, and cannot take a position on who is right. If a mediator started acting for one party, they would have to stop the mediation.
If you want advice about where you stand, that is what your own lawyer is for, and you are free to get it before, during or after. Nothing here replaces that.
No. Shuttle mediation means you sit in separate rooms and the mediator moves between you. It can also run online, from wherever you are.
Plenty of mediations work this way. Asking for it is ordinary, and it is not an admission of anything.
Tell us at intake, privately. We speak with each person separately before anything is arranged, and that conversation is confidential.
If mediation is not safe, it should not happen, and the law provides exemptions for exactly that situation. You do not have to be certain before you raise it.
Mediation is the only part of this process where you still have a say in the outcome. Everything after it is decided by someone else.
Dr Michael Tyler. Registered family dispute resolution practitioner and AMDRAS registered mediator. Both registrations sit on public registers and you are welcome to check them before you engage.
A mediator does not decide anything, does not give either party advice, and does not take a position on who is right. The role is to run a process in which two people who have stopped being able to talk to each other productively can do so again, and to test both sides' thinking hard enough that whatever is agreed actually holds.
Mediation House does not provide legal services or legal representation. If you need advice on your position, that is what your own lawyer is for, and getting it before you mediate is usually a good idea.
Mediation House sits alongside Alternative Dispute Resolutions, which handles commercial and workplace matters, and Elaw, self-help resources for people representing themselves.
Longer pieces on how these processes actually run, what the reforms changed, and what people get wrong before they arrive.
Intake is confidential and happens with each person separately. Nobody is put in a room with someone they are afraid of.
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