Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM)

Once we have received your referral, we will contact you to offer you a Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting (MIAM). A MIAM is a one to one meeting between yourself and one of our mediators – it does not involve the other person involved in your matter. If you wish, you can bring a friend or a relative with you for support.

The MIAM usually takes about 45 – 60 minutes and is an opportunity for you to tell the mediator about your situation. The mediator will explain to you in detail how mediation is likely to work in your circumstances and will provide information about other ways in which your family problems might be resolved; in addition the mediator will explain about the costs of mediation.

Both you and the other person involved in your matter have to attend MIAMs and both of you have to confirm that you are willing to try mediation and also the mediator has to decide that your matter is suitable for mediation before a first joint mediation meeting can be arranged. 

In most cases, you have to attend a MIAM before you are allowed to make an application to Court.

MEDIATION

At the mediation meeting, the role of the mediator is to act as the impartial facilitator – we will not take sides between you and we will do our best to help the two of you resolve the issues between you by agreement.

We expect to see you for two or three mediation meetings and usually the mediation meetings last 60 – 90 minutes. Following each mediation meeting, the mediator will produce a written Mediation Summary, a copy of which is sent to each of the two of you with copies to your solicitor if you wish.

If you reach agreed proposals to resolve the issues, the agreed proposals are written up and sent out too. Sometimes our clients want written proposals agreed in mediation to form the basis of a consent application to court; in this way, proposals agreed in mediation can be approved by the court and made into a legally binding court order.

Alternatives to Mediation including Court

If you attend a MIAM, but either you or the other party decides that you do not wish to mediate or if the mediator decides that your case is not suitable for mediation or if you try mediation but you cannot reach agreed proposals, we will sign you off mediation; once you are signed off mediation, if you choose, you can make an application to court and try to resolve the issues using the court process.

As above, most people have to attend a Miam before they are allowed to make an application to court, although they do not have to attend a mediation meeting if they don’t want to.