Mediation Should be Made Compulsory Instead of MIAMS

Earlier it was believed that if a couple wants to go for divorce, going to the court is the only way of seeking this legal procedure. But with the introduction of mediation, this thought didn’t exist anymore and became extinct. A lot of divorcing couples have started going for Family Mediation in Harrowgate as it is a better way of reaching a conclusion. The concept of MIAMS (Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings) came into being in April 2011 and was made mandatory for all those couples who were seeking a divorce.

All the couples who were going through the process of divorce had to attend MIAMS in April 2014 before they were granted the permission for their issue to be taken to the court. The main motive of conducting these meetings is to figure out whether family mediation is an appropriate way to get the matters resolved and ultimately stay away from all the court proceedings. But then The Ministry of Justice came up with the Legal Aid Statistics for the period of October to December 2015. The stats revealed some shocking results. It said that the numbers of MIAMS have started declining and went down by 16% in the last quarter.

The fact that mediation is not made to solve every case is acceptable. But then there are a lot of benefits for all those couples who are undergoing Family Mediation in Harrowgate. If the couple goes to the court, the main decision lies in the hands of the judge. But in the case of meditation, the powers of decision-making lie in the hands of the couple. This process huge amounts of powers to the couples and enables them to make their own decisions by working together to reach a mutual agreement. The whole discussion takes place in a calm and cool environment so that the couple doesn’t feel stressed about the situation and can take their decision in a relaxed manner. Mediation is a faster process and significantly cheaper than the option of going to the court.

But with the introduction of MIAMS, the choice of the couples for going through the process of mediation has started to shift. The couples are no longer having the desire to go for the process of mediation. There are a lot of reasons for this. There are a lot of exemptions which automatically gives the permission of not attending the MIAM. Some logical exemptions include situations like an allegation of domestic violence for the past 12 months, attending an MIAM would hurt the sentiments of the child or a huge risk of a miscarriage of justice or unreasonable hardship.

There is only one perfect solution for this issue i.e. Mediation should be made compulsory instead of MIAMS. It would introduce the rule of compulsory attendance of the couple during the sessions of mediation. This will help in making sure that all the necessary points and topics are being discussed at all times in all the meetings.