Lawyers are likely to charge a retainer of up to $5000, and will bill you for services carried out on top of those covered by the retainer. This retainer will be higher the more complex [...]

To risk stating the obvious, court-ordered mediation has been ordered by the courts to help solve a divorce proceeding, particularly ones where a child custody case or parenting dispute needs to be resolved. A date [...]

Legal litigation is way more confrontational, as lawyers are hired by both sides to present a case that’s designed to get a judge to give their client the most favourable decision. This usually means an [...]

This is down to the mediator, so you should ask them how they prefer to conduct their mediation sessions, before deciding whether or not to hire them. Some will prefer the session to take place [...]

You can start by asking friends or family if they know a good divorce mediator they’ve used before. If you can’t get a personal referral, your local community mediation agency, court or bar association should [...]

The short answer is yes, in most divorce mediations, you pay for a session at a time. But there will be additional charges for preparing court papers which will be levied before each document is [...]

There’s no such thing as a case that’s too complicated to be resolved by mediation. You may need to consult with other experts during the mediation process – financial planners, accountants, family lawyers, but you [...]

You might not think you can possibly enter into negotiations with your partner if your separation has been particularly acrimonious. But mediators are trained to help you both work things out in a respectful, non-confrontational [...]

There are bound to be certain issues that mediation is unable to resolve, but this won’t stop mediation being effective, as you can prepare an agreement that focuses on the issues you have resolved, and [...]