Illawarra Family Law Mediation

A Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner or Mediator is a neutral third party who assists people to resolve their disputes.

Britt Smith is the Principal Nationally Accredited Mediator and Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner at Illawarra Family Law Mediation. Britt became a Mediator because she wanted to provide families with an alternative to court. Britt has been a family lawyer for many years and has seen the emotional and financial toll that litigation has on families.

Mediation can help people avoid the family law system or leave it on their own terms. Illawarra Family Law Mediation is a business devoted to helping people achieve this.

Britt holds the following qualifications:

Bachelor of Laws, Bachelor of Medical Science & Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (UOW)
Graduate Diploma in Law (USYD)
Graduate Diploma in Family Dispute Resolution (College of Law)
Master of Applied Law (Family Law) (College of Law)

Britt is a member of the Law Society of NSW, the Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators, and the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia. Britt is appointed to the Legal Aid panel for General Family Law and the Independent Children’s Lawyer Panel. In addition to Family Law, Britt practices in Care and Protection (child welfare matters involving Community Services), Wills and Estates, and Conveyancing.

We ensure that if you have a parenting matter, your mediation will be conducted by a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner (FDRP) authorised to issue Section 60I certificates. We also offer a Child Inclusive Mediation Service if your matter is deemed appropriate for Child Inclusive Mediation.

Our Process

Why Mediate?

Pre-action Procedures and Section 60I certificates

If you have a Family Law dispute, there are pre-action procedures outlined at Schedule 1 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021. There are some circumstances where complying with the pre-action procedures may not be possible, such as in circumstances of urgency. However, in most cases it is expected that you will comply with the pre-action procedures.

The pre-action procedures outline that if you cannot reach an agreement, you are to make enquiries about, and attend dispute resolution, where it is safe to do so. This is why many people attend mediation.

If you wish to file an application for parenting orders, unless an exemption applies you will need a Section 60I certificate which can only be issued by a Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner registered with the Attorney General’s Department. If you wish to file any application in Family Law, you must file a Genuine Steps Certificate which outlines which pre-action procedures you completed.

The Family Court encourages the use of dispute resolution

In September 2021 the Family Law System was overhauled and a Central Practice Direction with Core Principles was released. The Central Practice Direction was updated 6 May 2024. The Core Principles outline the importance of Dispute Resolution, when it is safe for people to participate. The Court encourages the use of Dispute Resolution Procedures before filing any court application. After a court application is filed, people are expected to be proactive in identifying the appropriate time and way to participate in Dispute Resolution to increase the chance of them exiting the court system without the need for a contested final hearing.

Mediation is quicker than litigation

Mediation can be arranged quite quickly subject to the availability of the mediator and the parties. If you file a court application, the court aims to list the first court date about 1-2 months after filing. Mediation can be arranged sooner than that. You can also arrange multiple mediations within the time your matter waits for a final hearing date which could be in excess of 12 months from the date you file your application.

Mediation is more cost effective than litigation

Costs for family law matters vary depending on the hourly rate of your lawyer, the daily rate of any barrister, whether there are any experts needed and the complexity of your matter. We have met people who have spent $3000-$5000 on drafting documents to commence court proceedings, $15,000-$30,000 to progress a matter to interim hearing, and $60,000-$150,000 from commencing proceedings to receiving a judgment after contested final hearing. When you compare these figures to the cost of dispute resolution, it makes sense to try mediation.

Multiple options for attendance

Mediation can be face to face, by video conference or telephone. Parties can be in the room, or on the line, at the same time. Parties can be kept separate for the entire mediation if that is preferred or required.

Certainty of start time

A court operates between about 9.00am and 4.30pm on weekdays. Your matter is often in a list with multiple other matters and you don’t know if your matter will be called first, in the middle, or last. A mediation allows you the certainty of booking the date and time where your matter – and only your matter – will be discussed.

Updating agreements when there is a change in circumstances

Some parties will book one full day mediation. For other people, multiple shorter mediations may be more suitable over a number of months.

A common example we see is parties mediating very soon after separation and putting a temporary arrangement in place until both of them figure out where they will be living longer term. After their living arrangements formalise, they attend another mediation to settle matters on a final basis.

Another example is parents of very young children often mediate every 6 months as the needs of a 6-week-old are very different to the needs of a 6-month-old. Multiple mediations over time allow the parties to update their parenting arrangements to best meet the needs of their children.

Flexibility of process

Mediation can also be tailored to your needs. We can accommodate a whole range of matters including people who need regular breaks due to a health condition. Although we usually start mediation at 10.00am or 2.00pm, if you need a different start time, we can arrange that in consultation with the parties.

Confidentiality

Everything said in mediation is confidential (except the Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner is a mandatory reporter). There are no strangers sitting in the back of the room listening to your matter like in an open Family Court room.

You have more control over the outcome

If you agree to a settlement, you have control over what happens. If you go to a final hearing, a Judge who doesn’t know you will impose a decision on you.

Our Process

Intake

When you contact us, we will send you an intake form to complete and after receiving that intake form, we arrange a telephone call. The intake process helps us to decide if mediation is suitable, what mediation process is suitable for you, and provides the background information that will help the mediator prepare for mediation. It is during the intake process that you will let us know if you need a mediation about children’s matters, property matters or other family law matters.

We rarely issue Section 60I certificates in parenting matters without speaking to both parties. It may be the case that when one person contacts us, we deem mediation unsuitable. However, we feel that in most cases, we should contact the other party and hear both sides before making a final decision about suitability.

If mediation is deemed unsuitable, we will notify the parties and in parenting matters, issue the appropriate Section 60I certificate.

Invitation to mediation

Once we receive your intake form, we send an invitation to the parties to the mediation. Usually this is the parents of a child or the former spouses in a relationship. However, there may be third parties that need to be invited. We have conducted mediations involving grandparents and other significant people in children’s lives. In property matters, you may need to invite a third party who would be affected by any orders about your property, such as co-owner on the title of a property.

If a person does not respond to the invitation to mediation, we notify the parties.

In a parenting matter, we must send at least 2 invitations to the other party and one of those invitations is to be in writing. If they do not respond to the invitation, we issue the appropriate Section 60I certificate. We cannot issue a Section 60I certificate if you have not given us at least one way of sending an invitation in writing.

Determining the form of mediation

Once we speak to the parties, we determine what form of mediation is suitable. Many mediations will take the form of starting with a joint session, breaking out into private sessions and then potentially returning to the joint session. However, we can modify that process if we think it will better assist the parties. Some examples are:

We decide if face to face mediation, video conference or telephone mediation is suitable. During COVID-19 restrictions we favoured video conferencing. We would also offer video conferencing if the parties are in regional areas and want to avoid lengthy travel.
If a person has concerns about their safety, or they feel nervous, we can conduct a ‘shuttle’ mediation. This is where the parties do not have contact with each other. The mediator goes back and forth between the parties conducting the mediation in separate sessions.
Offering Child Inclusive Mediation in parenting matters. Child Inclusive Mediation is where all people with parental responsibility consent to the child being interviewed by a third party professional (not the mediator) with specific training in interviewing children. That person then attends the mediation to feed back the views, wishes and experiences of the child in the mediation, or they can meet with the parents for prior to the mediation to provide the feedback. There is an additional cost for child inclusive mediation as the person who interviews the child or children will charge a fee for their time.
If a party wishes to bring a support person, we can speak to the parties about support people attending. We prefer parties to attend by themselves (or with their lawyers) however there are some situations where a support person will be approved. A common example is an NDIS support worker assisting their client.

Arranging the date and time for mediation

The mediator will liaise with all parties, solicitors and support persons where relevant to arrange a date and time suitable to everyone. The mediation will then be diarised and everyone will receive a confirmation email, text message or letter.

Attending the mediation

The mediator will start by explaining to the parties the broad process for the day.

Each party will then be asked to briefly outline the list of topics they wish to discuss at mediation. This is called an ‘Opening Statement’. You can talk about as many issues as you like at mediation. Our mediators are well versed in all aspects of Family Law including but not limited to parenting, property, child support, spousal maintenance and contravention issues.

Once opening statements are completed, the mediator will assist the parties to discuss the issues and generate options to resolve their dispute.

During mediation, there may be private sessions between each party and the mediator. During these private sessions the mediator will work with you to reality test the options that have been discussed.

At the end of a mediation, if the parties have reached an agreement, there will be a discussion about how to record that agreement. If no agreement has been reached, then the mediator will facilitate discussions about what steps may need to take place before the parties can reach an agreement.

After mediation

After the mediation, you will receive an email with a Section 60I certificate in a parenting matter or a Certificate of Dispute Resolution if your matter is in court.

Fees

How much do you charge?

There are potentially 4 components to your invoice:

Intake

We charge a lump sum of $250 plus GST for intake. Intake is the process of each party providing the mediator with preliminary information so that the mediator can make an assessment of whether mediation is suitable and prepare for the mediation.

If mediation is not suitable in a parenting matter, we issue the Section 60I certificate at this stage. If mediation is not suitable in a property matter, we will provide a letter confirming our assessment.

2. Mediation

If mediation is assessed as suitable, in addition to the intake fee we charge:

a lump sum of $1000 plus GST for a half day mediation (up to 3 hours of mediation time) and we ask that each party pay half the fee
a lump sum of $2000 plus GST for a full day mediation (up to 6 hours of mediation time) and we ask that each party pay half the fee

3. Room Hire and travel (if needed)

We offer video conference and telephone mediations.

For face to face mediations, if you (or your solicitor) has a conference room or professional office available, we can attend that office. However, any room hire fee is to be paid by the parties.

If we are required to travel out of the Illawarra, we quote on a case by case basis.

4. Child Inclusive Mediation – additional fees payable to the person interviewing the child or children

Please note that if you are participating in a Child Inclusive Mediation, there is an additional fee charged by the person interviewing the children. We can provide you with a quote before you proceed.

The person interviewing the children will charge for:

a) Preparation and attending the intake with the parents to assess the issues – $300 plus GST; and

b) Interviewing the child or children. This is charged at an hourly rate of $150 plus GST per hour for a social worker or $200 plus GST per hour for a legally trained child interviewer. The minimum charge is 2 hours; and

c) Either attending a feedback session with the parents to provide the children’s views and experiences before mediation, or attending the mediation. This is charged at the hourly rate with a minimum charge of 2 hours; and

d) Travel and room hire may be applicable

Mediation fees are to be paid no later than 7 days prior to the mediation commencing.

Cancellation fees: If you cancel with less than 72 hours notice, 50% of the fees are forfeited. If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice, 100% of the fees are forfeited.

What if the mediation goes longer than the time allocated?

We find that each mediation is different and can vary in length. If your mediation runs a few minutes later than allocated, we understand that naturally happens.

If you book a mediation and it runs one hour later than expected, we can charge an hourly rate for additional time of $250 plus GST per hour, with each party to pay half.

Do the parties share the cost?

We ask that the parties share the costs of mediation equally.

Do you charge a different rate for property matters?

No. You are paying for the mediator’s time and charge the same rate for parenting, property, and combined issues mediations.

What happens if I cannot afford mediation?

If one party says they cannot afford our services, we offer the other party the option to pay all of the fees. The other party does not have to pay all of the fees, but it is an option.

If you cannot afford our services, you do not have to attend as mediation is a voluntary process. However, if you cannot afford our services, we may still have to issue a Section 60I certificate in parenting matters that says you did not attend. In that situation, we encourage you to send an email explaining why you cannot attend so there is a record of your reasons.

We can provide you with details for the local Family Relationships Centre.

You may also want to enquire about whether you are eligible for a grant of Legal Aid. You can google ‘Means Test Indicator’ on the NSW Legal Aid Website. You can also contact your local Legal Aid office or a panel solicitor that accepts Legal Aid Family Law work. If you have a grant of legal aid for mediation, the mediator will be allocated by Legal Aid.

What if I bring a solicitor?

You are solely responsible for the fees of your own solicitor and or barrister.

Do I have to bring my lawyer to mediation?

No. It is not mandatory to bring lawyers to mediation.

If you do not bring a lawyer, we ask that people consider if they want to obtain legal advice prior to them attending mediation or prior to them signing any settlement agreements.

If you want to bring your lawyer, you are more than welcome to do so. We ask that you notify us in advance so that we can liaise with you and your lawyer in relation to dates that you are available to attend mediation.

Get in Touch

We want to hear from you!

Email:

[email protected]

This is the best way to contact us.
We can answer any of your questions, send you an intake form and provide our available dates for mediation.

Phone:

0409 424 849

Please note that we do not answer text message enquiries.

Hours:

Monday to Friday – 9am to 5pm

Mediations that commence or conclude outside of office hours are subject to the availability of the mediator.

Weekend mediations are considered on a case-by-case basis and incur a 20% surcharge.

Find Us

Street address:

Suite 5, 104 Railway Street, Corrimal NSW 2518

Postal address:

PO Box 520, Corrimal NSW 2518

Please send all mail to the PO Box.

We are based in the Illawarra but can provide video conference and telephone mediation services anywhere in Australia.