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The initiative, launched on Monday 25th November by national family law association Resolution, aims to raise awareness of non-confrontational methods of resolving family breakdown, such as mediation, collaborative law and arbitration.
The initiative, launched on Monday 25th November by national family law association Resolution, aims to raise awareness of non-confrontational methods of resolving family breakdown, such as mediation, collaborative law and arbitration.
Advocate Barbara Corbett, Partner and Head of Family Law at Hanson Renouf, is a member of Resolution and has long been promoting the implementation of alternative methods of dispute resolution. She is a fully qualified Collaborative Lawyer, Specialist Children’s lawyer and is both a Family and a Civil and Commercial Mediator. She also recently trained as a family arbitrator.
The same basic principles apply to Mediation, Arbitration and Collaborative Law; they all aim for the parties to resolve their differences in a non-confrontational manner in order to reach a mutual agreement without the need to engage in lengthy and expensive court battles.
The Mediator’s role is to facilitate agreement between the parties and to remain neutral throughout the process. Collaborative Law is very similar to Mediation, except each party’s lawyer is also present and the process involves round the table meetings with the parties and their lawyers. Both parties must agree not to take the matter to Court and if one party subsequently takes the matter to Court, he/she is not allowed to use the same lawyer. The lawyers aim to work together in a collaborative rather than a confrontational manner.
Family Arbitration is a process in which you place the decision making in the hands of an Arbitrator who is the equivalent of a Judge, but doesn’t involve you having to issue Court proceedings. There are several advantages of using an Arbitrator: you can ask the Arbitrator to deal with all of the issues arising from your family breakdown or alternatively limit his/her involvement to one or two specific aspects; the process is completely confidential; you will get a final decision much more quickly and it is more cost effective than going through the Court process.
At Hanson Renouf we recognise that in addition to financial and practical issues, emotional issues can be very difficult to deal with and so we provide our clients with access to an independent and confidential counselling service.
There isn’t a one-size fits all approach to finding a solution after separating from a partner but in support of this week, Hanson Renouf will be offering people a chance to talk through and explain their situation with a specialist family lawyer who will then be able to inform them of the different options that are available.
The free meetings will be taking place in the Hanson Renouf offices found at 12 Hill Street from 9am to 5pm on Thursday 28th November. To make an appointment please phone 01534 767764 and ask for Jamie-Lee Morgan.
Any clients who decide to instruct Hanson Renouf after an initial meeting taking place on 28th November will be entitled to three hours of their chosen method of dispute resolution free of charge.
