COSTS

Initial meetings are always free and without any obligation or commitment. We will normally assess you to see if you are eligible for Public Funding (legal help). The Mediator will need to see evidence of your income including tax credits or benefits information as well as recording your National Insurance number. We will need to keep a copy of these documents

You cannot receive Publicly Funded Mediation without bringing evidence of income or benefits and your NI number, but if you are eligible, mediation is completely free for you

If you are eligible the Legal Services Commission will meet your mediation costs. In most cases this will also mean that you can get the legal advice to support your mediation without paying for it, and in many cases you will also be exempt from the statutory charge. Talk to your solicitor about this

If you are not eligible, we have a scale of charges linked to residual income, also calculated following the legal help assessment, during the initial meeting.

AIM costs: £120 – £160 per person per session plus a one-off administration fee of £50. Sessions normally last between 1.5 – 2 hours. Expect about 4 sessions

Child-Only costs: £60 – £80 per person per 1 hour meeting. Expect 2 – 3 sessions

All prices are inclusive of VAT and there are no other “hidden” charges – you pay only for the appointments you have.

Typical solicitor charges in the Cleveland area vary but it is not unusual to pay up to £120 per hour plus VAT – that is twice the cost of our hourly charge!

The Legal Services Commission suggests that if you were to handle these issues through court rather than use mediation, the costs for financial matters could be between £1000 and £5000 and for child issues £2000 – £4000.