Mediation Services
Solve your problems and resolve any disputes by letting us help
you reach a workable outcome.
Why us?
Start Mediation is a specialist mediation practice, solely focused on providing mediation services. Our mediators have backgrounds in either law or financial planning, and have been extensively trained in family, elder, civil and commercial, workplace, community and school-based peer mediation.
We offer decades of experience as solicitors and mediators, and our cost-efficient approach helps clients achieve better, faster and more affordable outcomes than traditional court proceedings. We provide impartial and confidential services tailored to each client, as well as unparalleled online mediation for added flexibility.
How Can We Help?
1
MIAM (Mediation Information Assessment Meeting)
A MIAM (Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting) is a 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. It helps applicants assess whether mediation might be suitable and provides information about support services. A MIAM certificate is provided if mediation isn’t successful, enabling a court application to be made.
2
Family Mediation
When intimate relationships break down, mediation offers a safe, structured, and impartial way to sort out financial and parenting arrangements. Mediators support both parents throughout mediation irrespective of who starts the process. The welfare of the children of the family will be central to the mediation. If appropriate, and where both parents agree, children can be offered the opportunity to speak in confidence to the mediator or someone working with them.
3
Elder and Adult
Elder mediation helps families communicate and make decisions together when beloved family members age. It is a safe and structured way to have what can be difficult conversations. Adult mediation is a way of sorting out problems where those concerned don’t feel they can do this between themselves.
4
Pet Mediation
Pet mediation is a great way to sort out arrangements for a loved pet when the owners’ relationship ends. By talking things through with our pet mediator you can find a way forward which will work for both humans and animals.
5
Business & Civil Mediation
Most problems and disputes in business come from poor communication rather than the law. We help businesses, and people within the same business, talk them through and agree a way forward, so that a valuable working relationship isn’t lost over a problem that could be sorted out.
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.
When is mediation not suitable?
Mediation is suitable for most problems and disputes, but not all. It may not be suitable if:
- someone needs urgent protection from harm
- there is a risk that money or property will be hidden or spent without agreement
- someone isn’t able to make informed decisions for themselves, for example because of a brain injury or illness
- one person is so afraid of, or controlled by, the other that they can’t speak freely
Only a court can make orders to protect people or property. We consider all of this at each Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), before deciding whether mediation would be a suitable way forward.
In our experience, cases that need a judge to decide are rare. Most people don’t need a judge to make decisions for them. They need the right support to make those decisions themselves.
If you’re not sure whether mediation is right for your situation, we can talk it through with you.
How long does mediation take?
Family mediation usually takes place over a series of meetings, each an hour and a half long, held three to four weeks apart. Most mediations take between two and six meetings, most commonly four or five.
There are good reasons for spacing meetings out:
- it spreads the cost
- it gives time to gather any information or documents needed before the next meeting
- it gives you both time to reflect and prepare, which helps you make informed decisions that last
- our diaries are usually booked about three weeks ahead
How many meetings you need depends on what needs to be sorted out, and how quickly any information can be gathered.
Longer meetings are possible. If we all agree it would be suitable, a meeting can be two or three hours long. A three-hour meeting gets more done than two shorter ones, because the time spent starting and finishing each meeting only happens once.
Before mediation starts, we meet each of you separately at a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM).
What is civil and business mediation?
Civil mediation tends to involve business problems and disputes: between different businesses, and between people within the same business, such as partners, directors, shareholders, or family members in a family business.
As with family problems, these are often as much about working relationships and communication as about the law or a contract.
As with all our mediation, you don’t need lawyers to take part, though they can be there if we all agree they are needed and would be of value. Meetings can take place in person at our meeting rooms in Ipswich, or online by Zoom.
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.