What Family Mediation Cannot Do

A mediator will not make findings of fact in relation to past events, in the way that a Judge will. In the absence of documentary evidence, if you and your former partner cannot agree what your respective contributions to your first house purchase were, or agree to split the difference between you, the mediator will not tell you what figure you should use. 

Mediation will help you to reach an agreement in relation to all of the important matters which may affect your agreement or help you to look at the problem in a way which may make some of these factors irrelevant.  It is not a small claims court for divorcing couples.

The mediator will not reach any conclusions as to who is to blame for the breakdown of the marriage.  Quite apart from the point about findings of fact made in the previous paragraph, issues of blame are very rarely relevant to the way in which the law resolves issues relating to finances or children.

The mediator will not provide you with legal advice.  If the agreement that you are contemplating is so unusual that it is unlikely to be approved by the Court the mediator will tell you.  However other than in this situation, the only legal information that mediator will provide you with it is purely factual and publicly available information, such as the formula used to calculate child maintenance by the Child Support Agency [CSA].
 

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