Steps to the Mediation Process

We are a team of qualified Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners (FDRPs)

and able to issue 60I Certificates. 

1. One party will contact Life Mediation to make an appointment for an intake session.
 

2. Party 1 has an intake (one on one) session with the mediator, which will take 1 hour. In this intake you will get to ask questions, tell your story and the mediator will prepare you for a hypothetical mediation and might give you some tasks to do so you are well prepared for the mediation.

3. Party 1 will invite the other party to come to mediation. They will contact Life Mediation and we will make an appointment with them for their intake. Or Life Mediation will invite the other party (Party 2) to engage in the mediation process. We will engage the other party  twice, as a minimum, and at least once in writing. The other party has a week to respond to this invitation. That does not mean an appointment has to be made within a week. If you engage the other party yourself and they contact us, there is no extra cost. If we have to invite the other party in or if we have to verify that the other party is not engaging in mediation, there is a  fixed fee for 1 hour of our time, which is in the amount of $440 (incl. GST)

4. If the other party is not responding or does not want to engage in mediation, the party who initiated the mediation process can ask the mediator for a certificate to go to the family court if the mediation is about children's matters. If the mediator has not contacted the other party, the mediator would have to do this first before the certificate can be issued. Cost would apply.
 

5. If the other party wants to engage in the mediation process, then he or she will make an appointment for their one on one intake session.

6. After the mediator has seen both parties, she can assess if mediation is suitable for this particular matter. If mediation is suitable, she will decide based on both parties' intake session what the best way is to run the mediation session. If mediation is not suitable, then she can issue a certificate if the matter is about children.
 

7. If mediation is suitable, the parties will have a joint mediation session. A mediation takes 3 hours if it's a session without lawyers present. When lawyers are present, the mediation will take half a day or a full day and the prices are different. If you want to do a lawyer-assisted mediation, please let us know so we can send you the details. We can only conduct a lawyer-assisted mediation if both clients are able to bring a lawyer to mediation or it is agreed that only one client brings a lawyer to mediation. In the event that clients cannot agree on lawyers being present or not, we will only be able to conduct a non-lawyer-assisted mediation. 
 

8. To organise the joint mediation session, the mediator will send out an email to both clients and will ask you to come up with a date that you both can attend. A small admin fee would apply. In the event that it takes our staff more time to organise the session, we will charge for the time spent organising the mediation session. 

9. The mediator will type up the agreement if the party has come up to an agreement in the session. She will discuss with you what the next steps are to make this document into a legally binding document so you and the other party can make agreements around this. Drafting of the agreement is $200 (plus GST).

10. A 60I Certificate can be issued at anytime in the process. For example, if one of the parties does not want to engage in mediation, if parties cannot come to an agreement or if the matter is not appropriate for mediation. 

11. If any of the parties have a complaint about the mediator, then they can put in their complaint with the mediation body that she is a member of. Our mediators are members of the Resolution Institute. https://www.resolution.institute

Cancellation Policy:

• After receiving the booking confirmation email and should you decide to cancel,  a $50 admin fee will be charged.
• A $440 fee will be charged if cancellation is made within 24 hours prior the scheduled intake session.
• For joint mediations, the party who cancels the booking within 24 hours prior the scheduled session will pay for the whole amount charged for that session.

Refund Policy:

• 50% of the payment will be refunded if you inform us 72 hours before your scheduled date about the cancellation.