Why work with Focus Mediation?

Commercial, civil, probate, employment and all non family types of mediation. We aim to offer the right mediator for your dispute.

With this in mind we have a very varied panel of mediators from a wide range of professional backgrounds covering the majority of southern England.

Our mediators are extremely experienced, some training other mediators and training worldwide. All our mediators are CMC recognised and compliant. We run in house training and you can rest assured that we look after our referrers and clients well and your clients will thank you for steering them to us.

What you can expect: family mediation

Our aim is to help you and your clients. We know how deeply frustrating it is, if clients return to you thinking they have mediated a deal, only to find something critical has not been addressed.

You have the difficult task of trying to complete matters, with an impatient and sometimes unappreciative client.

With Focus you can feel confident that:

1. We will encourage clients to seek your help before during and after mediation. Your clients trust you to give them the truth – and we hope you will give them best and worst case scenarios, so they have realistic expectations about likely outcomes.
2. We see mediation as pricing a raft of cases back into your market, even cases that were previously legal aid will need your services. Mediation Clients are often afraid of big legal bills. However, we actively encourage them to go for advice and to have their deals made binding and implemented. This raft of smaller mediated cases is potentially new work that may have escaped you before.
3. We will ensure that all the issues are properly addressed. For example, we will not leave the issue of spousal maintenance for a young mum on the “Too Difficult” pile.
4. We will not ignore the issues of pensions, or Capital Gains Tax, property portfolios or company//business valuations.
5. We will not accept incomplete disclosure; where we know of an asset, it must be fully disclosed and valued.
6. We value and seek good working relationships with Family Lawyers. We believe that we must work in parallel with each other to deliver a seamless service to our shared clients.
7. We really value your feedback. Let us know how we get on.

The key benefits of family mediation are:

1. Fast-track family mediation is done in a day; clients and lawyers love it as some of your clients, will really appreciate having you there with them.
2. Fast-track family mediation is good at any time in a divorce or separation, before or after proceedings have started – after a failed FDR – when everyone is staring down the barrels of a trial. Also before anyone has done anything – as a highly civilised and fast resolution method, which clients may find far more congenial than conventional processes for settling cases. Mention “done in a day!” Gauge their reaction, it sells itself and should get you more work.
3. Fast-track family mediation simply uses the well-established civil//commercial model of mediation for family cases. The mediator will be dual trained family//commercial.
4. You are there through-out – and make the deal binding in a Consent Order or Separation Deed.
5. There are two options for disclosure, either:
   1. You will prepare the case up to completion of disclosure (exchange Forms E and associated documents; raise and deal with any valuation or disclosure issues); investigate housing costs, mortgage capacities, get actuarial report on pensions OR
   2. You’ll refer the case to us for us to deal with disclosure and the requisite preparation at a pre-mediation appointment, to complete the above tasks with the clients
6. You stay more involved with the case; you are normally there throughout and always at the end, otherwise we shall have to prepare a conventional Memorandum of Understanding for you to make binding after the mediation.
7. Unlike conventional civil litigation, we are not (as family mediators) supposed to make the deal binding in a Tomlin Order. The possible exception to this rule is TOLATA cases, where a referral to commercial style mediation is made and Tomlin Orders can be drawn by mediators, unless one of the clients gets family legal Aid, when the LSC rules prohibit this.