Thomas More Chambers offers the full selection of Non-Court or Alternative Dispute Resolution to resolve family disputes, whether they are disagreements about divorce, money or children and whether the parties are married or not. Members of Chambers are fully qualified to arbitrate and mediate family disputes as well as offering Collaborative law and Private FDRs and Early Neutral Evaluation.

Thomas More Chambers Family NCDR team provides professional dispute resolution methods and techniques to enable dispute settlement and conflict resolution.

Whatever type of dispute resolution you are considering it is always wise to seek some basic legal advice in addition.

Practically, Chambers has a number of rooms available for use for in person and hybrid NCDR as well as being able to provide video-conferencing for virtual sessions.

Family Mediation

Mediation is an opportunity for people who are in dispute about family matters to make arrangements for the future in relation to finances and/or for parenting their children. A family mediator will facilitate discussions between two or more parties to a dispute so that they can consider their options and propose solutions in a calm and measured environment. A mediator cannot impose an outcome on the clients who are always the ultimate decision makers when arriving at a mutually acceptable outcome. A real advantage to this process is the confidentiality it offers. In addition, anything said in mediation cannot generally be referred to in Court save in exceptional circumstances.

Parties can choose to bring their lawyers to mediation and can also choose to mediate on line. Equally, mediation can be conducted such that the parties do not remain in the same room together if they would prefer to remain in separate rooms.

The mediation sessions can be an all day session or shorter sessions depending upon the nature of the dispute and whether lawyers are also attending. They can also be in person, remote or hybrid.

Prior to any mediation commencing the parties will need to have an assessment session with the Mediator to ensure that the matter is indeed suitable to be mediated. At the end of the mediation meetings a Memorandum of Understanding will be drawn up by the mediator which can be shown the parties’ lawyers.

Encouraging the use of mediation assists in the resolution of disputes and helps to avoid the worry, time and cost associated with adversarial court-based litigation. On average mediation costs are much less expensive and much faster according to a report by the National Audit Office. Mediation is also expressly encouraged within the Family & Civil Proceedings Rules, and the courts are beginning to insist upon its use.

Sarah Cooper is a Resolution trained Family Mediator who mediates both children and financial disputes. She also has experience of conducting mediations in Spanish.

Fiona Edington is a Family Mediation Association with experience mediating a wide range of family disputes.

Tracy Bird and Jacob Gifford Head are CEDR trained mediators who have experience in mediating financial disputes relating to unmarried couples under ToLATA.

Additionally, members of chambers have experience representing parties as advocates during mediation: this is a very different skill from court-room advocacy.

To instruct a Thomas More Chambers member to act as a mediator or represent a party during a mediation, please contact our clerks.

Private FDR and Early Neutral Evaluation

A private FDR replaces the financial dispute resolution hearing in court with a privately appointed FDR “judge” or “evaluator”, chosen by agreement between the parties, providing an indication to the parties in place of the court-allocated District, Circuit or High Court Judge who would ordinarily hear the FDR hearing.

Early Neutral Evaluations are broadly similar to private FDRs but take place in other areas of law which do not have a FDR system, such as cohabitation ToLATA disputes.

In the past private FDRs were sometimes seen as the preserve of “big money” cases but, in recent years, family lawyers have understood that they can be a cost-effective way of achieving settlement for disputes involving ordinary families.

Once the private FDR / ENE judge or evaluator has been chosen, the process of a private FDR / ENE is similar to that of a conventional FDR in court. However, it can be tailored to the specific needs of the case. Usually, the parties will comply with the directions made or agreed at an FDA. A bundle of relevant papers are prepared. The parties will exchange without prejudice offers. On the day of the hearing, there is time for negotiation between the parties and their lawyers. If these stall, they can then come before the private FDR / ENE judge or evaluator who will hear submissions and give an indication of what he or her thinks is likely to be the outcome at a final hearing and where a fair settlement might lie. This generally leads to further negotiations and, hopefully, settlement, with a consent order being prepared for submission to court. In the event settlement is unsuccessful, the parties remain protected by the usual confidentiality and without prejudice privilege of a court FDR.

The advantages of a private FDR or ENE include:

• Speed and convenience: the private FDR / ENE can generally be held as soon as the parties have obtained all relevant disclosure on a date which is convenient to them and their lawyers. There is no need to wait prolonged periods of time for a court listing nor deal with listings on inconvenient dates.
• Time and attention: the private FDR / ENE judge or evaluator will be able to spend as much time during the day as is necessary for the needs of the parties, including giving multiple indications if necessary. There will be no waiting in queue to be heard and much less danger of running out-of-time due to the competing pressures of other matters.
• Confidence: since the private FDR / ENE judge or evaluator has been chosen by the parties based on his or her expertise, the parties are more likely to have confidence in the indications which makes settlement more likely.

Chambers can offer private FDR / ENE judges and evaluators to suit a range of budgets, usually on a fixed fee basis. Please contact our clerks for further information.
Arbitration differs from mediation in that it results in a binding decision which is capable of being made into an order by the Court.

Round Table Meetings

Round-table meetings are a form of without prejudice settlement meetings. Contrary to the name, usually three rooms are used: one for each side and a common room where the lawyers or their parties can meet. Thomas More Chambers' members have considerable experience with attending RTMs to negotiate and advise clients, and Chambers is now able to offer a number of rooms suitable for use a venue for these sessions.

Family Arbitration

Arbitration differs from mediation in that it results in a binding decision which is capable of being made into an order by the Court.

Parties choose an arbitrator who will then consider the disputes and how best they might be resolved. This will normally involve parties giving evidence in a similar way to a court hearing. An award in financial cases or determination in children cases is then written up by the Arbitrator which the parties can invite the Court to make into an order, thereby providing certainly for the future.

The arbitration process is generally far faster than the Court process and the meetings can take place at times and in locations for the convenience of the parties and their lawyers. Arbitrations can also be conducted on line. All arbitrations are also entirely confidential to the parties.

Sarah Lucy Cooper is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and fully qualified to conduct arbitrations both in relation to financial disputes and in relation to children. As a part time Circuit Judge since 2018 (Recorder on the SE Circuit) Sarah has a great deal of experience in resolving family cases both in relation to finances and children. She is also a member of the panel of the Institute of Family Law Arbitrators.

Collaborative Law

Fiona Edington is also a fully trained Resolution Collaborative Lawyer.

For more information on any of the areas described above, please contact the clerks.