Legal Aid changed on the 1st April 2013.
The following fees reflect the changes and are valid from 1st April 2013
When you contact our service to arrange your Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM), you will be asked to provide details of a credit or debit card to reserve the appointment.
We will ask you to bring with you to the MIAM meeting documentation to support your application for Legal Aid or reduced fees . If you are not eligible or do not bring the requested documents, the fee for the meeting will be deducted from the Pre- Authorised credit or debit card.
Am I eligible for public funding?
The legal system recognises that mediation is a financially effective way of resolving disputes. You may be eligible for legal aid depending on your means.
You can assess your likelihood of being eligible using the Legal Aid Calculator.
If you are eligible and you provide full documentation to support your Legal Aid application then you will not be required to pay fees for our service. The Statutory Charge does not apply to family mediation so you will not have to pay back your public funding from your financial settlement.
What if I am not eligible for public funding?
If you are not eligible for public funding, you will need to pay your mediation costs at our Standard Rate.
However, we understand that those on lower incomes need extra help, so you may still qualify for special rates. Eligibility for these is as follows:
Assessed Rate - this applies if you have been assessed for legal aid but your income is just above the legal aid threshold. If you have been through the Legal Aid Assessment process, you will qualify for our assessed rate if your monthly disposable income is below £800.
Reduced Rate - if you do not qualify for the assessed rate or if you are not assessed because you know you are not eligible for public funding, but your gross monthly income is below £2200 you qualify for the reduced rate.
If both you and your ex partner are required to pay for your Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting and your case proceeds to mediation you will both get a 20% discount on your first session fees.
If you are still not sure about fees then please contact us
How much will I pay?
If you are not eligible for Legal Aid the different stages of mediation are charged separately – not all cases will involve every stage.
The fees for each stage of the process are listed below - all fees are subject to VAT at 20%
Individual MIAM session £70.00 + VAT per client
Engagement Fee £25 + VAT Fixed Fee
Joint MIAM session £60.00 + VAT per client
Mediation session- these prices are per session and each session is 90 minutes - (please note other mediators may quote an hourly rate, so bear this in mind when comparing costs):
Standard rate £140.00 + VAT per client
Reduced rate £100.00 + VAT per client
Assessed rate £87.50 + VAT per client
Document fee £100.00 + VAT per document
If you qualify for legal aid, you will not incur fees for using family mediation. However, entitlement to legal aid is assessed on an individual basis, and mediation sessions are charged per client, so one of you may pay while the other may not.
Cancellation Fees
Sometimes appointments do need to be rearranged and we try to be as flexible as possible to accomodate our clients. We ask clients who are unable to attend appointments to provide at least 3 full working days notice (working day is 9am- 5pm Monday - Friday). Where appointments are cancelled, no more than two re-arranged appointments will be allowed.
Where insufficient notice of cancellation is given, there will be a cancellation fee of up to 100% of the session fee depending on the amount of notice given and the cancellation fee will be deducted from the pre- authorised card.
3 Full Working Days Notice - No Cancellation Fee
1-2 Full Working Days Notice- 50% Session Fee
Non Attendance/ Notice on the day- 100% Session Cost