Whilst over recent years the divorce rate had fallen, in the last 12 months that trend appears to be being reversed. There is some evidence that as the housing market continues to pick up and individuals start to feel more economically stable they are prepared to take steps to end an unhappy relationship.
However, the modern separating couple are often looking for a more creative way to resolve any issues rather than utilising the old style ‘adversarial’ system.
When a relationship breaks down communication is one of the hardest things to maintain and yet one of the most essential because you make decisions about some of the most important aspects of your life together and how they will be managed once you are apart.
At Sydney Mitchell all of the lawyers take a conciliatory approach to family work but in particular we have developed two specialist aspects to our service to meet the desire of many clients to deal with matters in a consensual way.
We can offer both a collaborative law service.
With mediation the two of you as a couple sit down together with a qualified solicitor who will assist you in identifying the issues that you need to resolve and will facilitate a constructive dialogue between you to hopefully enable you to come to agreement over the issues that matter to you and your family. The mediator is independent of both parties and impartial to both. They will not provide you with advice but will enable you to arrive at the best decisions for your situation.
Whilst couples can seek legal advice independently to support the mediation process there is no legal intervention in the mediation meetings themselves.
Collaborative law is a process that still gives the opportunity for a couple to work together in a series of direct, open and honest discussions about the terms of their separation. However, there is no independent mediator in this process. Instead each party involved has a lawyer who is trained in collaborative law and meetings take place with the couple and their lawyers where they discuss the separation in order to agree a solution for their mutual benefit.
At Sydney Mitchell we have two Resolution trained and accredited collaborative lawyers, namely Judi Wood and Teresa Mannion. If you would like more information about both the mediation process and the collaborative law process, call one of the family law team directly at Birmingham, Sheldon or Shirley 0121 698 2200 / 0121 700 1400 / 0121 746 3300 or fill in our online enquiry form.
This article featured in the Birmingham Post Family Law Supplement
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