Understanding the Cost of Mediation in Ontario?

Mediation time, billed hourly and shared between you

• Senior mediators: $250 per hour, which works out to $125 per hour for each of you

• Associate mediators: $160 to $190 per hour

Documents, billed at a fixed rate

• Financial Disclosure Package, including your Form 13.1 financial statement: $795 per spouse

• Child and spousal support analysis, up to three settlement scenarios: $595

• Property division and equalization worksheets, up to three scenarios: $995

• Parenting provisions and parenting time schedule: $595 and $195

• Draft separation agreement: $1,350

All fees are plus HST. There are other line items for specific situations, and every one of them is set out in writing in our engagement agreement before you commit to anything.

Nothing gets added later without you seeing it first.

These are our standard rates, not a fixed price list. We work on a sliding scale, and for some families the fee is lower.

If cost is the thing standing between you and getting this settled, raise it on our first call. It's a normal conversation to have, and you won't be the first person to ask.

Here's a representative file. Two children, one matrimonial home being sold, one defined benefit pension, both spouses employed, no business and no serious conflict. Four mediation sessions from first meeting to signed agreement.

Documents

• Financial Disclosure Package, $795 each: $1,590

• Pension valuation application: $195

• Child and spousal support analysis: $595

• Property division and equalization worksheets: $995

• Cash from home sale worksheet: $195

• Parenting provisions: $595

• Parenting time schedule: $195

• Draft separation agreement: $1,350

Documents subtotal: $5,710 Mediation time Eight hours across four sessions at $250 per hour: $2,000 Total: $7,710 for the couple, or $3,855 each, plus HST This is an example at our standard rates, not a quote.

Your file could come in lower if you already agree on most things, or higher if it takes more sessions to get there. And because we work on a sliding scale, some families pay less than the figures above. But this is the shape of a normal one.

Three things drive the cost, and you control two of them. How much you already agree on. This is the big one. Couples who arrive with the separation date settled and a rough sense of the parenting schedule spend far less time in session than couples who are still arguing about who moved out and when.

How organized your disclosure is.

Mediation can't move forward until both of you have put your finances on the table. If bank statements, pension documents and tax returns arrive complete and on time, we spend session hours on decisions instead of chasing paper.

What you actually own. A pension, a business, investment accounts and a house each add analysis. A couple renting with no pensions and no children has a much shorter list of documents to prepare.

Most mediation websites won't tell you. I will. At DTSW, mediation time is billed by the hour and the documents are billed at set rates.

At our standard rates, a typical separation with two children, a house and a pension runs about $7,700 for the couple, or roughly $3,850 each, plus HST.

We also work on a sliding scale, so for some families it comes in lower. Below is the full breakdown, then a worked example so you can see exactly where the money goes.

Mediation time, billed hourly and shared between you

• Senior mediators: $250 per hour, which works out to $125 per hour for each of you

• Associate mediators: $160 to $190 per hour

Documents, billed at a fixed rate

• Financial Disclosure Package, including your Form 13.1 financial statement: $795 per spouse

• Child and spousal support analysis, up to three settlement scenarios: $595

• Property division and equalization worksheets, up to three scenarios: $995

• Parenting provisions and parenting time schedule: $595 and $195

• Draft separation agreement: $1,350

All fees are plus HST. There are other line items for specific situations, and every one of them is set out in writing in our engagement agreement before you commit to anything.

Nothing gets added later without you seeing it first.

These are our standard rates, not a fixed price list. We work on a sliding scale, and for some families the fee is lower.

If cost is the thing standing between you and getting this settled, raise it on our first call. It's a normal conversation to have, and you won't be the first person to ask.

Here's a representative file. Two children, one matrimonial home being sold, one defined benefit pension, both spouses employed, no business and no serious conflict. Four mediation sessions from first meeting to signed agreement.

Documents

• Financial Disclosure Package, $795 each: $1,590

• Pension valuation application: $195

• Child and spousal support analysis: $595

• Property division and equalization worksheets: $995

• Cash from home sale worksheet: $195

• Parenting provisions: $595

• Parenting time schedule: $195

• Draft separation agreement: $1,350

Documents subtotal: $5,710 Mediation time Eight hours across four sessions at $250 per hour: $2,000 Total: $7,710 for the couple, or $3,855 each, plus HST This is an example at our standard rates, not a quote.

Your file could come in lower if you already agree on most things, or higher if it takes more sessions to get there. And because we work on a sliding scale, some families pay less than the figures above. But this is the shape of a normal one.

Three things drive the cost, and you control two of them. How much you already agree on. This is the big one. Couples who arrive with the separation date settled and a rough sense of the parenting schedule spend far less time in session than couples who are still arguing about who moved out and when.

How organized your disclosure is.

Mediation can't move forward until both of you have put your finances on the table. If bank statements, pension documents and tax returns arrive complete and on time, we spend session hours on decisions instead of chasing paper.

What you actually own. A pension, a business, investment accounts and a house each add analysis. A couple renting with no pensions and no children has a much shorter list of documents to prepare.

Here are the 2024 median fees Ontario family lawyers reported:

• Uncontested divorce: $1,500

• Separation agreement without children: $3,000

• Separation agreement with children: $3,750

• Motion to change an existing order: $8,000

• Contested divorce: $10,000

• Trial up to two days: $20,000

• Trial up to five days: $50,000

I'll be straight with you about what those numbers mean, because most mediation websites are not. If you and your spouse already agree on everything, a lawyer drafting your separation agreement at the Ontario median of $3,750 costs roughly what our mediated file costs per person.

Mediation is not the bargain in that scenario. If you genuinely agree on parenting, support and property, and you just need the document written, say so on our call and I'll tell you honestly whether you need us.

Three things that comparison leaves out. It's one lawyer, working for one of you. Your spouse needs their own, and that's a separate bill at a similar number. Our fee covers both of you. The financial work has to happen before anyone can draft.

No lawyer can write a separation agreement until the financial statements are prepared, income is verified, support is calculated, the pension is valued and the property is equalized. That work is not in the $3,750. It is either billed on top at the lawyer's hourly rate, or you do it yourself and hope it holds up. It is included in our fee. Neither are the hours spent negotiating.

That figure is the price of writing an agreement, not the price of reaching one. It assumes the two of you already agree on parenting, support and property. Every hour spent getting you to that point is billed separately, by both lawyers. One more thing worth knowing: that's a median for the whole province.

In my experience, rates across the Greater Toronto Area sit above it.

The real comparison is the row below it on that list. Couples who can't reach terms don't pay $3,750. They pay $10,000 for a contested divorce, and $20,000 to $50,000 if it reaches trial, each.

In fifteen years of doing this, the couples who spend the most are almost never the ones with the most complicated finances. They're the ones who spent a year fighting before anyone sat down at a table.

That's what you're buying. Not a cheaper document. A much lower chance of ending up on the expensive end of that list.

Mediation fees are normally split between you, which is why the hourly rate above is shown both ways.

Some couples divide it differently, in proportion to income, or with one spouse covering it as part of the overall settlement.

That's a decision the two of you can make, and it's one of the things we sort out at the start.