The questions people actually ask.

A structured, confidential process in which separating people work with an independent practitioner to resolve disputes about children, property or finances without going to court. The practitioner does not decide anything and does not advise either party. They identify the issues, help generate options, manage the conflict, and keep the negotiation moving in a sequence that actually produces agreement.

In ordinary use they mean the same thing. Strictly, "family dispute resolution" is the statutory term for mediation conducted by a practitioner registered under the Family Law Regulations, and only a registered practitioner can issue a section 60I certificate. All our mediations are conducted on that basis, so the distinction does not change anything for you.

Agreement is always voluntary — nobody can be made to settle. Attendance is more complicated. Without a certificate you generally cannot file for a parenting order, a court can order parties into dispute resolution before listing a matter, and refusing to attend produces a certificate recording that refusal, which the court sees. So in practice there is more pressure to attend than the word "voluntary" suggests.

Intake and both pre-meetings usually take two to three weeks to arrange around everyone's availability. The joint session is a single day or half day. Simple parenting matters resolve in one session; a large or contested asset pool sometimes needs a second. From first call to signed outcome is commonly four to six weeks — against a year or more for a defended hearing.

Partial agreements are common and worth having: reducing six issues to two makes any later hearing shorter and cheaper. Nothing said in the session can be used against you afterwards. In a parenting matter a certificate issues regardless, so you are not blocked from filing. You also leave with disclosure complete and the real issues identified, which is a better starting position than most parties manage.

Sometimes, and sometimes not. Family violence is a statutory exception to the certificate requirement, so you may be able to file without attending at all. Where mediation can proceed safely it proceeds shuttled — separate rooms, staggered arrival and departure, parties never meeting — or online. Where it cannot, we say so at intake rather than after taking a fee. Tell us early; it changes the assessment, not your standing.

The parties stay in separate rooms, or separate virtual rooms, and the practitioner moves between them carrying offers, questions and explanations. It is slower than a joint session and it is the right choice wherever being in one room would be unsafe, intimidating, or simply so charged that nothing useful would be said.

Yes. Intake, pre-meetings, the joint session and the documents can all be conducted in Portuguese, in English, or bilingually where each of you is more comfortable in a different language. This is the practitioner working directly in both, not an interpreter sitting beside a mediator.

A written, dated and signed agreement between parents about arrangements for their children — where they live, time with each parent, communication, schooling and so on. It is not enforceable, but a court must consider the most recent one when making a parenting order. Many parents deliberately start here because it can be changed without going back to court.

Enforceability. A plan is a private agreement you cannot bring a contravention application on. Consent orders are made by the court on the papers — nobody attends — and are enforceable like any other order. If you want the arrangement to bind, it needs to be orders.

The child's best interests are the paramount consideration. The court weighs safety, the benefit of a meaningful relationship with both parents, the child's views where appropriate, each parent's capacity, and the practical realities of the households. Australian law gives no automatic preference to mothers or fathers.

Not in the room. Where it would help, a child's views can be gathered by a suitably qualified child consultant and brought into the mediation — child-inclusive practice. That is a separate engagement at a separate cost, and both parents have to agree to it.

Not unilaterally, if it would significantly affect the other parent's time. You need their consent or a court order. Relocation is one of the hardest categories in family law and one of the most worthwhile to mediate, because a negotiated relocation can be structured — travel, costs, extended blocks of time — in ways a court order rarely matches.

A parenting plan cannot be enforced. Orders can: the other parent can apply to the court, which may require make-up time, vary the orders, or impose consequences. Whether a contravention application or an enforcement application is the right route is a question for your own solicitor.

It is a fixed fee for the whole process, not an hourly rate — quoted in advance and confirmed in writing in your costs agreement before anything is booked. Current figures are on the booking page. The fee covers the practitioner's reading time, both pre-meetings and room hire.

Fees are shared equally between the parties unless you agree otherwise. The pre-meeting is charged separately per party, so if either of you decides not to continue there is no cost for a joint session that was never going to happen.

Yes — twenty minutes, no charge, no obligation to book anything afterwards. If what you describe means mediation is the wrong instrument, we will tell you that on the call rather than book you in.

A contested parenting or property matter runs into tens of thousands of dollars before it reaches a trial, spread across interlocutory steps, affidavits, experts and counsel. A mediation is a single fixed fee. Even where mediation only narrows the issues, it usually shortens what follows.

Not to mediate — the practitioner is neutral and does not advise either of you. Lawyers often attend the joint session and it frequently helps, particularly where the pool is complex. For a binding financial agreement, independent advice for both parties is a statutory requirement.