Family Dispute Resolution - General Information

Separation and divorce are difficult for everyone in the family, especially your children. The pace at which your children understand and accept separation may be different to yours. Your children will need extra love, care and support during this time, even though you yourself are likely to be struggling too. Some certainty about the future will help children to feel a sense of security about what is happening. Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) can help with this.

FEES

Stage in the process

Price per person

Initial phone consultation (up to 30 mins)

FREE

FA M I LY D I S P U T E R E S O L U T I O N

Preparation meeting (1 ½ -2 hours) with mediator - including invitation to other party and issuing of s60I certificate if required

$500

Joint session mediation (up to 4 hours) – including drafting Parenting Agreement

W HAT IS FAMILY DISPUTE RESOLUTION (FDR)?

Family Dispute Resolution is the legal term for a type of mediation which provides people with an effective way to resolve issues arising out of separation or divorce, including those relating to parenting and/or property and finances.

Your Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner Kieran Gamble (BA, LLB, Grad Dip Ed, Grad Dip Family Dispute Resolution) has undertaken expert training in family dispute resolution and is accredited with the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s department.

Additional hours / joint sessions

$1000 $200 per hour

Fees are payable by each party individually and are due at least 24 hours prior to the event.

Kieran’s experience as a lawyer and high school teacher give her a unique skill set that underpins her approach to mediation – legal expertise combined with empathy and practical, impartial guidance, as well as an understanding of the impacts of separation on children.

For a standard mediation you and your former partner will each pay $1500 PHONE 0436 432 932 | EMAIL kgamble@freshwatermediation.com | WEB freshwatermediation.com

G E N E R A L I N F O R M AT I O N

W HAT AR E T H E B ENEF I T S OF F D R ?

W H AT IS TH E PR O C E S S ?

In addition to any legal obligation to attempt FDR, there are many benefits to FDR:

1 Cost effective

Timely

Control

Conciliatory

Better outcomes for kids

Mediation is significantly less expensive than protracted legal negotiations or court proceedings.

With Freshwater Mediation, your costs are transparent

Depending upon your own time constraints, with Freshwater Mediation, your FDR can usually be completed within a month of your first appointment – court action can take years

You retain control of the outcomes for your family – the mediator does not impose decisions

FDR enables people to overcome disagreement and to jointly and constructively develop agreements for the future, leading to… better outcomes for kids

Your children will directly benefit from the reduction in conflict that is encouraged through the mediation process – children manage better if their parents can find a way to cooperate about parenting, rather than having decisions imposed by a court. Separation is not inherently harmful to kids, but ongoing conflict is

2

3

Contact

Prepare – we meet with you

Invite

Phone or email us for an initial FREE, confidential half-hour chat. Tell us about your family and your situation as well as the issues that you are experiencing.

We can help you work out whether mediation is right for you and your situation.

We will meet with you for a confidential two hour meeting. The purpose of this meeting is for us to better understand the issues that you and your family are facing and to help you prepare for mediation.

We also obliged by law to assess your situation to make sure that mediation will be safe and constructive for both parties at this time. If your matter is unsuitable for mediation or the other party is unwilling to participate, we can issue a s60I certificate at this stage.

We will invite your co-parent to participate in the mediation process.

Although no one is ‘forced’ to mediate, family law in Australia generally requires separated parents to make a genuine attempt to mediate their issues before accessing the court system for parenting matters.

What can we discuss in parenting mediation?

When is mediation suitable?

Finances and property

Things you might like to talk about include: ✓ Living and care arrangements for children ✓ How to improve communication between parents ✓ How holidays and special days will be managed ✓ Child support ✓ Education and co-curricular activities ✓ Health care

Mediation works best for separating or separated parents who genuinely want to resolve their conflicts and who are able to negotiate constructively in a practical, future-focused and child-focused manner.

Often issues around finances and property overlap with parenting matters. We can also mediate your finances and property – see our Property and Finances Mediation brochure for more information.

It is the mediator’s role to assess the suitability of a matter for mediation as well as to ensure that participation remains safe and constructive for both parties. If your matter is unsuitable at any time during the process, your mediator can issue you with a s60I certificate.

4 Prepare – we meet with your co-parent We will meet with the other party for a confidential two hour meeting.

The purpose of this meeting is for us to better understand the issues that they are facing and to help them prepare for mediation. We continue to assess your matter for suitability. If your matter is unsuitable for mediation, or the other party is unwilling to participate, we can issue a s60I certificate at this stage.

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6

Mediation – joint session

Agreements and next steps

You and your co-parent, along with the mediator, will meet to discuss, and work towards a better understanding of, the issues in dispute. Both parties will be encouraged to share their views and present proposals to resolve the matters raised. We allow four hours for this joint session but can add more hours or sessions if needed.

We will document all items that you come to agreement on, and record them in a ‘parenting agreement’. A Parenting Agreement is not legally enforceable, rather it is an expression of your intentions (see our Parenting Mediation brochure about Parenting Agreements, Parenting Plans and Consent Orders).

If there are a number of items still in dispute, we can either arrange for another session of mediation or issue a s60I certificate.

Have a look at our Parenting Mediation brochue for more detailed information and valuable tips on how to prepare for mediation.