Child inclusive mediation may be the preferred option for your family if your child or children are aged 5 or older. The purpose of including children in the pre-mediation process is to assist the parents with making child focused parenting arrangements which may consider each child’s view and their experience of the separation.

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Child inclusive mediation does not involve the children attending mediation and negotiating alongside their parents. Instead, each child will meet with a qualified child consultant prior to the mediation. The child consultant will engage the children in discussions and games relating to the family dynamic, any concerns or fears they may have, what makes them happy, their  preferred living arrangements and other relevant topics. The child will be made aware of which of their disclosures will later be communicated to the parents at mediation. 

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The child consultant will be present at the first part of the mediation, to discuss the children’s views and experience of separation, which may assist parents to commence child focused negotiations. 

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If your family law matter proceeds to Court (or is already in Court) prior to an interim hearing the Court is likely to engage a Child Court expert (psychologist or social worker) to meet with each child and parent and prepare a report with recommendations as to interim orders they believe to be in the child or children's best interests. If the matter proceeds to final hearing it is likely that a family report will be ordered to be prepared. The purpose of the family report is for a qualified Family Consultant to provide their professional opinion as to the final orders they consider to be in the child or children’s best interests based on the evidence filed by each party, the parties disclosures, the children’s views (if age appropriate) and their observations of each party with each child (if age appropriate). The family report prior to final hearing is more comprehensive and detailed compared to the report prior to an interim hearing.

 

The judge will take the content of the each expert report and the expert's evidence into consideration when determining the interim and final parenting orders. If you are not legally aided, the cost of a Court ordered private family report may be in the vicinity of $10,000 to $20,000, it is usual for parties to share this cost equally. This cost is additional to each party's own solicitor legal fees.

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The things children say to independent Family Consultants regarding their preferred living arrangements, their fears, concerns and desires can be surprising and sometimes upsetting to parents. By the time a Court ordered family report is prepared and issued, parties have accrued enormous legal fees which could have been avoided had they resolved the matter at child inclusive mediation sooner (and preferably before Court proceedings are commenced).

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The cost of preparing an application to Court and proceeding all the way to a final hearing may cost each party $30,000 to $100,000 depending on the complexity of matter (often costs are higher than this - speak with a lawyer regarding legal costs). It is common for matters in Court to take years to reach a final hearing. 

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There is undoubtedly a significant financial, time, and emotional benefit to resolving your matter as early as possible without proceeding to Court. 

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We offer child inclusive mediation to assist families with understanding and considering the child or children’s view at the earliest possible opportunity - at a fraction of the cost compared to Court proceedings and a Court ordered family report.

The child inclusive mediation process follows a similar structure to the Court based family report process, without the exorbitant Court related costs.

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All communications associated with the child inclusive mediation are confidential and cannot be repeated to anyone who is not a party to the mediation (unless a limited exception applies).

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Communication at the child inclusive mediation cannot be used by either parent in future Court proceedings.

If parties sign and date their agreement at mediation, the agreement becomes a Parenting Plan. Parenting plans are not required to be kept confidential (parents can show people the agreement). Either parent can rely on the Parenting Plan in future Court proceedings. Parenting Plans are not legally enforceable like Court orders.

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A significant advantage to resolving parenting arrangements by way of a Parenting Plan is that you can enter “interim” parenting plans (agreements that expire on a certain date) and agree to re-consider parenting arrangements  again in future. This is often helpful when children are very young and you seek to increase one parent's time when the child is older. 

 

If parent's seek legally enforceable Court orders they can convert the Parenting Plan to consent orders. Parent's are not required to attend Court, the Application for Consent orders are submitted electronically and considered by the Court electronically.

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Court made consent orders will remain in place until the child turns 18 (unless a significant change in circumstances is proved). As you can probably imagine, it may be difficult to prepare parenting arrangements up to the age of 18 for children aged 3 or younger.

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Contact Katherine on 0449 025 489 for a free 15 minute telephone conference to discuss whether child inclusive mediation is appropriate for your family. 

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