Before attending a joint mediation meeting you need to attend a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting, or ‘MIAM’ for short, to see if mediation could be used to resolve your difficulties and to avoid going to court. If you need to go to court you must first attend this meeting.
The MIAM is a confidential meeting between you and a mediator to look at your situation in more detail and to discuss the ways to find solutions to your problems.
The mediator will explain to you:
- what your options might be.
- what mediation is, and how it works.
- the benefits of mediation and other appropriate forms of resolving disputes.
- the likely costs of using mediation.
- this is the Information part of the Meeting. The objective is to give you enough information to then make an assessment/informed decision about what option is best for you.
- if you decide on mediation the mediator would then contact the other party to invite them to a similar meeting.
- if you both then wish to go ahead with mediation the first joint mediation meeting would be arranged.