The likely costs of family mediation
- Online Mediation
- Jul 23
- 5 min read
Expert family mediators explain the expected costs of mediation in three situations: MIAM, Child Arrangements mediation, and Financial Settlement mediation. Â
MIAM (Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting)
The MIAM is an individual and confidential session between you and an expert family mediator. During this consultation session, you will receive information on your range of options, from court applications to informal discussions. The aim is to help you to resolve the current difficulties, and match you to the option that is most appropriate. Where applicable, the mediator can make contact with the other person in the dispute after your MIAM, to open a line of communication.
Frequently, the MIAM is all that is required to get things back on track. The meeting is a stand-alone and confidential session that does not necessarily lead on to joint mediation. Joint mediation is completely voluntary for all involved.
The costs of a MIAM session range from £85 to £160, per person.
At Online Mediation, our MIAM fee is £95. There is no VAT to add.
After your MIAM, if you proceed with an application to court, there is an administration fee to provide the necessary signed paperwork (such as a C100 or Form A) - the Online Mediation fee is £40.
Child Arrangements mediation
Mediation on arrangements for children can include: working to agree schedules of time with each parent, making schooling decisions, sharing financial costs, practicalities for handovers, and all other areas affecting children after family separation.
The likely cost of Child Arrangements mediation has benefited from recent government funding called the Mediation Voucher Scheme. This provides £500 to parents to pay for joint mediation to resolve disputes, and ideally avoid the court route. There are no financial tests, and the voucher is one-off. Your mediator obtains the voucher funding for you. Each parent will still need to pay for their individual MIAM session. The cost for the MIAM ranges from around £85 - £160. Online Mediation charges £95 for a MIAM.
Each mediation provider sets their own rates for joint mediation sessions. This means that the £500 Mediation Voucher will cover more time with a provider where their hourly rate is lower. Family Mediators must be accredited with the Family Mediation Council to obtain voucher funding, so it is always worth double-checking with a provider first that they can actually obtain the voucher for you, before booking a MIAM.
At Online Mediation, the voucher covers just under 2 hours of joint mediation. This is often enough time to cover the topics that parents bring to the table. The total costs are therefore just £95 for the MIAM (each person needs to attend their own MIAM).
If the voucher runs out, and more topics need discussing and resolving, parents move to the provider’s standard hourly rate, which range from £100 - £240, per parent. At Online Mediation our hourly rate per parent is £120.
Likely cost of Child Arrangements mediation: from £95 - £240, per person.
Financial Settlement mediation
Separation and divorce involves making decisions over family finances, so you can start your next chapter on a firm financial footing. Mediation is a structured, thorough and cooperative process for achieving a fair and suitable financial settlement.
Each person will start, as always in mediation, with an individual consultation meeting called a MIAM. This session ensures all options are discussed, and assesses joint mediation for safety and suitability. The costs of a MIAM session usually range between £85 and £160, per person. At Online Mediation, our MIAM fee is £95.
The £500 Mediation Voucher Scheme will be accessible if arrangements for children need sorting in mediation. This applies even where financial settlement also requires mediation.
If child arrangements are not relevant, or the voucher has been fully used, clients are charged at the provider’s standard rate. These range from around £100 - £240 an hour, per person. At Online Mediation our standard hourly rate is £120 per person.
In financial settlement mediation, participants are guided through ‘financial disclosure’, where all relevant financial details are set down transparently. This also allows participants to consult a lawyer on the fairness of their agreement, before making it legally binding. Time taken in mediation sessions to collate and discuss financial facts usually range from 1.5 hours, to 3 hours, depending on the extent and complexity of the family's finances.
Mediation sessions then focus on considering several options for a settlement. Mediators help participants to consider if an option meets their needs, and vitally the needs of any children under 18. ‘Reality-testing’ is done to ensure a preferred option will work in practice. Mediators will draw up a document with comprehensive details of a proposed agreement, allowing participants to get quality and informed legal advice before committing finally to a settlement.
In our experience, discussing options, considering needs, and reality-testing a proposal, takes from 2 hours - 5 hours of a mediators time. Drawing up proposals in a formal document will usually take a further 1-2 hours.
For financial settlement mediation, total costs would start from around £445 per person (a simple financial picture, together with relatively smooth negotiations) and on the higher end around £1,295 per person. These are at the Online Mediation hourly rates of £120 per person, include the MIAM fee, and a formal document. They assume that the voucher is not claimed, so if child arrangements are part of discussion, £500 can be deducted (£250 per person).
A great strength of the family mediation route is that costs are discussed and available in advance, and are not run up by routine administrative activities like charges by the minute for phone calls or emails.
Each journey through mediation will be individual and unique, so the broad ranges discussed here may not describe your circumstances. You will always be informed, and in control, of your mediation budget.
Legal Aid
All participants should be aware of the option for Legal Aid. Where a participant qualifies for Legal Aid, they will not pay for family mediation. The other participant usually also receives an element of the service for free. There are many Legal Aid providers that are easily accessible due to the option of mediating online by video-call.
To check if you qualify for legal aid, you can use the Check Legal Aid service:
Broadly the criteria for Legal Aid are shown below, but please be aware there are complexities to this, and the criteria do change regularly:
Search online for Legal Aid family mediation, or check the list of providers on the Gov website. Online Mediation does not provide Legal Aid funding, but does provide Mediation Voucher funding.
Further information
Online Mediation: full price list https://www.onlinemediation.org.uk/costandprocess
Online Mediation: book a MIAM Book Online | Online Mediation | Family Mediation Services
Family Mediation Council information on the mediation process: https://www.familymediationcouncil.org.uk/family-mediation/
Please note:
This blog was correct when posted, but prices, processes and options can change so speak to us for current information. Our posts are not usually updated to reflect changes that happen after publication. Any information provided is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. If you require legal advice, please contact a suitably qualified solicitor.
