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My husbands ex initially refused mediation. Upon a court hearing date and appointing her solicitor she is suddenly "very keen" to mediate.
Her solicitor wrote to my husband today and attached a letter to the court (dated LAST Friday) requesting the first hearing to be adjourned until another 12 weeks time, claiming both parties feel the matter can be resolved via mediation. My husband said nothing of the sort! He contacted the court who say they have received no such letter! Nonetheless, he has quickly filed a response contesting this, asking the hearing date to remain the same.
Her solicitor has also made a referral to a mediator local to her (think 80%, 20% journey wise) claiming this is half way and again informing the mediator he wishes to mediate!? He initially arranged mediation at a half way point which was fair.
Can he stipulate his own conditions if he decides to agree to mediation, such as requesting his original mediator and any agreements be made into an order? Or will this somehow make him look unreasonable, by attaching conditions?...for a voluntary process, it doesn't feel so voluntary :unsure:
Mojo, if you read this, I know you said on my previous thread it was reasonable but I just wanted to quadruple check???
And how successful will her solicitor be at getting this hearing adjourned?
Thanks again 😉
Hi
It will be up to the judge or court to decide whether to adjourn the hearing. Nobody can predict what an individual court or judge will decide.
I would just wait and see what the court says for now regarding the adjournment.
Unless the mediator she is suggesting is tied to her firm of solicitors, there's no reason to object. It would be more realistic to object to mediation on the basis that she has previously refused to engage in the process.
Hopefully the court will allow the hearing to go ahead.
There is always the possibility that the court could send you both to mediation. If possible, I would stick with having the hearing.
If it's her solicitor that is saying he wants to mediate then I would certainly object on the grounds of lack of impartiality.
I don't mind you checking on what I previously advised...it's always good to get others opinions, that's what this forum is so good at! I would repeat what I said and agree with Yodas comments.
Thank you both very much!
I don't believe the mediation referral is in any way linked to the solicitor, it's simply the fact that her solicitor has chosen one close to her as opposed to the one my husband chose which was half way. To be more specific, my husband will be travelling for almost three hours and her journey will be 30 minutes. The mediator he chose was around 1hr 15 mins each (the place her solicitor suggested is further off the beaten track). Surely it's unreasonable conduct to not simply refer mediation to the inital place and feels like a deliberate tactic to make my husband appear unreasonable? So honestly, what are both of your thoughts? Is it really not reasonable to make the condition of mediation to be held half way, considering how far he will now have to travel, because she refused mediation? And can he stipulate any agreements be made into a consent order?
Yoda, I think he would agree to attend, if the case was held adjacent to mediation but he definitely does not want the hearing adjourned. I'm astounded her solicitor wrote to the Court claiming he had agreed to this!
He's a very non confrontational person and would never consider court action if he didn't believe it to be his only option.
When is the hearing Foxy?
Just under 2 weeks :sick:
I think you can drag out writing back and forth to her solicitors for the next couple of weeks. I would stick to your guns and hold to the points that it should remain with the mediator that was involved initially, for the reasons already stated.
If you are both disputing the location of mediation when in court, they will decide, but be aware that they tend to go with a location near to the resident parent, same with court location, so don't be put off if that's the case... whether you agreed to it or not won't have a bearing on the way the court views you going forward....let's face it if your husband and his ex could agree you wouldn't be where you are right now.
All the best
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