What is a MIAM? (Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting)

What is a MIAM? (Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting)

As one of the ways of resolving the issues arising out of your separation, many couples chose mediation. This is a way of reaching a proposal by discussing matters face to face with your former partner (virtual or in person)  and, with the help of a qualified family mediator.

Family Law loves an acronym and mediation is no exception. Recently MIAM has been bandied around quite a lot and it is now one of the most common search terms in family law.

So, what is a MIAM and how do they fit into the options for separating couples?

MIAM stands for Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting. These are individual private and confidential sessions that a mediation participant has with a family mediator before they progress to joint sessions. They are a prerequisite to mediations but also to starting court proceedings. This is because the family court are very keen for couples to know about mediation and its benefits and for one or both of the couple to have actively rejected that option before issuing court proceedings. In some circumstances the mediator may certify that the matter is not currently suitable for mediation and the court needs to know about at too. It is a means by which the mediator communicates to the court that mediation is not suitable, or the couple refuse it.

However, it is also so much more. The MIAM will enable a potential participant to learn about what mediation can and cannot do and to understand the nature of the mediator’s role. As well as answering any questions that the likely participant has about the process and obtaining information about costs, it is also an opportunity for the mediator to assess the suitability of the couple, and their situation for mediation. 

Mediators are professionals who have been specially trained to help separating couples negotiate in a non-adversarial way and to help them deal with the issues arising out of their separation, including both children and money. They are often former or current family lawyers. This year the family court recognised their role by insisting that trying to resolve separation together out of court is now non-negotiable. The mediators have a private and confidential individual session with one or both of the couple and provide information and assessment of your suitability for, not only mediation but for other means of non-court dispute resolution. If the participants are interested in resolving their issues through this route, then they will go forward to joint sessions. The Government currently gives £500 towards the costs of each couples’ mediation fees if they have children.

If you issue court proceedings, then you will have to fill in a court form called FM5 which asks ‘Why are you here?’ Why haven’t you tried a non-court dispute resolution? And if you have, why hasn’t it worked?

If a judge at the first hearing isn’t satisfied that you’ve tried it, they will stop the proceedings and send you off to do just that. If you are keen but your partner refuses, then the judge can not only stop the proceedings but potentially could ask your partner to pay the cost of that hearing.

In short, the family court wants to make sure that everyone tries mediation and if not that there are good reasons why only the court can make the decision for you.

MIAMs are not new, and mediation is certainly not new but the stick and carrot approach now being used by the family court is forcing clients to put mediation further up the list of ways in which to try to resolve issues arising out of a separation. Certainly, where there are children concerned, this can only be a good thing in terms of the reduced expense to the clients, not only financially but also emotionally.