Our Services
Some of the things we can help with
Family Mediation
When intimate partner relationships break down, mediation is a safe and structured way to sort out financial and parenting arrangements.
MIAM
Private and confidential one-hour meeting with an authorised family mediator to assess whether a problem or dispute can be addressed without involving the courts.
Pet Mediation
Mediation provides a way of sorting out arrangements for a loved pet when the owners’ relationship ends.
Elder & Adult
Mediation helps families communicate and make decisions as members age. It provides a safe and structured way for engaging in difficult conversations.
About Us
Mediation is a more effective way for most people to solve their problems or resolve their disputes than going through the legal system.
With our decades of expertise as solicitors and mediators, we help clients achieve better, faster, more affordable, and longer lasting results.
Mediation works for individuals, groups, and organisations.
What is a MIAM?
A MIAM is a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting. It’s a private, confidential 60-minute meeting with one of our accredited family mediators, on your own. It can take place at our meeting rooms in Ipswich or online by Zoom.
If you want to apply to the family court about arrangements for children, or about finances after separation, you must first attend a MIAM, unless an exemption applies. We also meet each person separately like this before any mediation starts, whether or not court is being considered.
At your MIAM, the mediator talks with you about what has happened and explains how mediation works, and how other processes work, such as court and arbitration. If you have children, we also tell you about child-inclusive mediation and other services that can help. You can ask any questions you have.
If we go on to meet the other person separately, we then decide whether mediation would be a suitable way forward. If it isn’t, or either of you decides not to go ahead, we can provide a MIAM certificate if you need to apply to court.
To book your MIAM, fill in our online form.
Our Engagement Process
Our engagement process is outlined below. Each mediation service has its own process, but generally it follows these steps:
1

Contact Us
Contact us to start the process by calling or emailing directly, or by being referred by a lawyer.
2
2

Initial private consultation
We discuss your needs and goals and determine if mediation is the right option for you.
3

Mediation
We facilitate a joint conversation over one or more meetings with you and the other participant(s) , to help you reach a mutual proposal.
4
4

Outcome
We help review and test any proposal to ensure that all participants are satisfied before confirming the agreement.
Testimonials
Frequently asked questions
Some of the questions people ask us most often.
What is mediation?
Mediation is a way of sorting out problems and disputes by talking them through, with the help of someone who has had specific training in working with people together and helping them to communicate. Mediators don’t take sides or make decisions. Their job is to help each and both of the people involved talk about what matters to them, understand their options, including what the law says, and reach decisions they can all accept.
Mediation is voluntary. The people taking part decide what to agree, and nothing is settled until they are all ready.
Much of our work is family mediation: separation and divorce, arrangements for children, and finances and property. We are also elder mediators and adult mediators, helping with problems and disputes between adults in the same family, including over an older person’s living arrangements, wills and inheritance. We are pet mediators, helping with problems and disputes over beloved pets. And we are civil mediators, helping with problems and disputes between businesses, or between people within the same business.
Do I need a lawyer to sort out my problem?
Most people are able to reach agreement through mediation. Most of the problems that mediators, and indeed lawyers, deal with are ones for which there is no clear and certain answer in law. What usually stands in the way of an agreement is communication. For most people, the best way to say what they want and what they need is through a process like mediation.
The first step is a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), where we talk with you about your situation and whether mediation is suitable.
Do we have to be in the same room?
Typically, yes. Mediation works best when you can talk to each other directly, with a mediator there to help. Meeting together is how we normally work.
For people who live locally, meetings usually take place in person at our meeting rooms in Ipswich. Where people live some distance apart, or one of you lives abroad, we meet online by Zoom, with everyone on screen together. We decide which is more suitable.
If you are worried about being in the same room as the other person, please tell us at your Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM). We take that seriously, and it is one of the things we consider when deciding whether mediation is suitable.
Where it is essential for the wellbeing or safety of any participant, there are other ways of working. Meeting online by Zoom can be an alternative for some people. On Zoom, we can also arrange for you to hear each other without seeing each other, or for each of you to be in a separate online room, seeing and hearing only the mediator.
Mediation can also take place through private meetings in separate rooms, with each of you talking separately with the mediator, in person or online. But mediation through private meetings is likely to take more meetings than mediation where participants can talk to each other directly.
Can mediation take place online?
Yes. We have mediated online since 2012, and Stephen Anderson was the first family mediator in the UK to offer online mediation routinely. Online meetings take place by Zoom, with everyone on screen together.
Online mediation can suit people who live in different parts of the country or abroad, who find it hard to travel, or who need to fit meetings around caring for children or their working hours. We decide with you whether meetings take place in person at our meeting rooms in Ipswich, or online.
For mediation, you need a laptop, desktop computer or tablet with a camera, propped up rather than handheld. A phone is fine for a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM). Our guide to mediating online explains how to prepare.
How much does it cost?
A Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) costs £199 per person. This covers your 60-minute meeting and us contacting the other person. If, after your MIAM, you decide you would rather not mediate, you can ask us for a MIAM certificate, and the cost of it is included in the price of the MIAM. We explain the details when you book.
Mediation meetings are charged at a fixed price per meeting, so you know the cost in advance. Most mediations take between two and six meetings. Our current prices are on our Pricing page.
If your problem or dispute involves children, you may be able to get up to £500 towards the cost of mediation through the government’s Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. The voucher can’t be used for MIAMs. If you’re eligible, we apply for it on your behalf.
Our Blogs
Latest from our Blog
My Lawyer Told Me I Need To Make a Court Application
The scene: mediators' consulting rooms all over England and Wales. Client: "My lawyer told me I need to make a court...
Family Courts: If Their Decisions Are Inevitable Why Go There?
Court outcomes range from unpredictable to inevitable One of the favourite hobbies of family lawyers is to discuss...
Divorcing? What you are entitled to may come as a surprise.
Solicitors’ ping pong We see a lot of people for MIAMs (Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings) who are going...






