Divorce/ separation mediation

[gizmocat1]

Dear friends, does anyone have experience of mediation? I am looking at separating from my husband. I’ve been advised mediation would help. Has anyone else used it ? Would it be worthwhile? How much does it cost?

I’ve seen around £1000 which I think is quite expensive and then if you add this to the cost of a solicitor ... it’ll get very costly, but then again if it’s worthwhile , I’m open .

I'd expect mediation to cost in the region of £50-£70 an hour and then it depends how many hours you use.

As to whether it's worthwhile that's impossible for me to say. For some couples they would be able to manage amicably without. For others they would have such irreconcilable differences that it would be a waste of time.

So if you are somewhere in the middle then it could be very helpful.

I had it and it cost a hell of a lot more than £50-70 per hour. Afair, each person is charged separately and ex was unwaged so didn't need to pay but I spent about 1.5- 2k for 5-6 sessions of 90 minutes. There was a separate fee for the paperwork that they sent on to the solicitor etc etc.

It was quite useful in getting the ball rolling and talking about things we hadn't discussed before with a third person there. I found the mediator quite biased in favour of ex, but he'd probably say the same. It did help get the ball rolling but ultimately I regret spending all that money as ex claimed to not remember anything we agreed at the sessions and said she had not emailed him the notes, which I don't believe as why wouldn't she and why didn't he chase her up on it if not?

What do you expect it to help with? If ex is a reasonable person but you find it hard to talk in the circumstances it can help, and mine was quite good at explaining the legal side of things clearly, but if you are still communicating well it's an unnecessary expense imo. If ex is determined to be a dick, the money will be better spent on a shit-hot lawyer.