Family Mediation Blog

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Expert advice on handling Christmas as a divorced or separated parent

 Legal action through the courts isn't your only option. The most important thing is to remember that Christmas is a time for children, and ultimately their wants and needs should come before your own But, for divorced and separated parents, which account for 2.9 million families in the UK, these plans are more complicated than for others. Sad...

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Inter-Parental Conflict and Family Separation Prof Gordon Harold (University of Cambridge)

 A simple summary of the evidence as regards Inter-Parental Conflict and Family Separation: • Family separation is always a stressful experience for children and teens in the short term. But what drives the long term impact on them is the level of conflict they witness before, during and following parental separation. • It's normal for it to t...

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Top 5 Reasons People Come to Family Mediation

 No family is without its drama, but for the most part disagreements and disputes can be settled with a little breathing space and time out. For families in conflict however, it can be more difficult to bring about a resolution that works for all parties. Especially where tensions are already running high following a relationship breakdown, se...

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Press release Mediation to help thousands more families avoid costly legal battles


Thousands more separating parents will avoid stressful and expensive courtroom battles after a government mediation scheme was more than doubled in size. From: Ministry of Justice Published 3 June 2022 Thousands more people to receive mediation vouchers for family disputes More than 8,400 vouchers already used – 10,200 more now funded 65 percent of...

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No-Fault Divorce and Family Justice in the UK

Significant changes are coming to the UK family courts. The long-awaited implementation of no-fault divorce has allowed for less contentious divorce proceedings, and additional funding for mediation has provided another viable way to resolve disputes relating to children. One of the biggest changes to divorce law was implemented earlier this year, ...

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Mediation to help thousands more families avoid costly legal battles

Thousands more separating parents will avoid stressful and expensive courtroom battles after a government mediation scheme was more than doubled in size. thousands more people to receive mediation vouchers for family disputes more than 8,400 vouchers already used – 10,200 more now funded 65 percent of cases reach whole or partial agreements away fr...

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No-fault divorce is here

From 6th April 2022, the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 will come into force and it will no longer be possible to blame the other party for the breakdown of the marriage. Either party can apply alone simply stating that the marriage has irretrievably broken down and that will be sufficient to obtain a divorce. Alternatively, for the f...

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Children's experience of private law proceedings

The Nuffield FJO has published the six key messages from research about children's experience of private law proceedings. The study reviewed UK and international research studies between 2000 and 2020 that directly obtained children's and young people's thoughts on parental separation and/or their experience of court proceedings. Despite limitation...

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Divorce: no-fault divorce starts 6 April 2022

 Divorce: no-fault divorce starts 6 April 2022 The decades of campaigning for a 'no fault divorce' position finally resulted in the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill obtaining Royal Assent in June 2020.The changes are the biggest shake-up of divorce laws for 50 years and it means that from 6 April 2022:• married and civil partnership co...

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Four tips to help you avoid pulling your children into your conflict:

It is being caught up in their parents conflict that causes issues for children, rather than the separation in itself.  Here are four tips to help you avoid pulling your children into your conflict:1. Reassure your children that they are loved by both parents. They were before the separation and that won't change.2. Be clear with both your wor...

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Family Mediation South East – Helping Separated Families

Family Mediation South East is also taking part in the Ministry of Justice's Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, which meets up to £500 of mediation costs for families if they need to discuss arrangements for children. The scheme is anticipated to run until the end of March, although vouchers are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. For more...

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Family mediation scheme to help thousands more parents

Thousands more separating parents will avoid stressful courtroom battles as the Government boosts its landmark family mediation scheme with an additional £1.3 million. From: Ministry of Justice and The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP Published 16 January 2022 • Extra funding triples investment into Government mediation scheme since launch last year • 4,400 ...

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