Welcome to Northern Beaches & North Shore Family Law Mediation
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Welcome to Northern Beaches & North Shore Family Law Mediation
Mediation moves at the pace that you need. The mediators at Northern Beaches and North Shore Family Law Mediation.
are committed to providing an appointment within seven days of your initial contact. Resolving outstanding parenting and property matters is essential, and we appreciate the desire to start the process as soon as possible.
After initiating family mediation, we will contact the other party, inviting them to attend an intake and assessment interview. If the other party does not respond within fourteen days to that letter, email or telephone call, Northern Beaches and North Shore Family Law Mediation will make another attempt.
If there is still no response from them after an additional seven days from the second contact, you can request a section 60i certificate from your mediator stating that mediation did not occur because the other party did not attend/respond.
If the other party does respond, we will offer them an appointment with our family mediator within seven days. Northern Beaches and North Shore Family Law Mediation tries to ensure minimal delay in the process. Hence, if you or the other party continues to decline available times or cancels appointments without a valid reason, you may request a “did not attend” section 60i certificate for mediation services.
If the other party attends an intake and assessment interview and the mediator deems it appropriate to proceed to mediation, Northern Beaches and North Shore Family Law Mediation will offer a joint mediation appointment time within the next fourteen days, subject to availability.
Depending on the level of commitment by the parties, the process can take around a month. As advised, if there are unreasonable delays in attempting family mediation, and it is considered appropriate to proceed, Northern Beaches and North Shore Family Law Mediation may issue a section 60i certificate.
Currently it is the case that if you wish to commence parenting proceedings in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia you must file with your application to the court a section 60i certificate which is obtainable only after attempting to engage in mediation/ Family Dispute Resolution.
There are Five kinds of section 60I certificates that can be issued, these include certificates to the effect:
Our mediators hold qualifications under the Attorney General’s Department to be able to Issue Section 60I certificates as appropriate, and can provide you with any information you require in relation to Section 60I certificates.
Many people come to mediation with a view that their matter will need to go to court – we understand that you may come to mediation with a low hope of success – as for some time you have been stuck in a dynamic where there has been little productive discussion or agreement.
Of course, we are hoping that we can provide you with a process, the tools and a safe space to change this dynamic so that you can make decisions and focus on where to next. If you attend mediation and you do not reach a full agreement there are still significant benefits. These include that you will have been able to gain a better understanding of where the other party is coming from and that you will have been able to narrow some of the issues in dispute.
We work to ensure that your matter can be assessed and any required certificate issued as soon as possible.
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards Legislation.