Lawyer-supported mediation is a term given to a dispute resolution process offered to parties at a time of divorce or separation.
The approach integrates the contribution of family lawyer or solicitor with that of a family mediator. Users of lawyer-supported mediation first meet their respective lawyers to take advice before jointly attending mediation sessions. Legal advice is taken between sessions to inform options being discussed at mediation. Following agreement at mediation, both parties meet their respective lawyers a final time to review the agreement and to have aspects of it made legally binding. Since neither lawyer is being retained as a professional negotiator, the cost of legal advice is typically fixed for clients choosing lawyer-supported mediation.
In the event of lawyer-supported mediation failing to deliver a consensual agreement, both parties are free to retain their respective lawyers to pursue litigation. This is not the case with collaborative law where a breakdown in roundtable negotiations requires each party to instruct a new family lawyer before proceeding with court action.
Lawyer-supported mediation is being pioneered in the United Kingdom (UK). A pilot service covering Greater London launched in late 2011 but it’s believed more fixed fee partnerships between UK family lawyers and family mediators will be launched in 2012.
According to figures released by the UK’s Legal Services Commission, the success rate of publicly funded mediations in 2009/2010 stood at 70%.[1]