Disputes can affect any individual or organisation. William Sturges offers support in finding ways of resolving them quickly, practically and fairly for everyone. Our Mediation and Collaborative Practice experts help to resolve issues by working with all the parties involved, reducing stress and saving time and money.

The Mediator meets with everyone involved in the dispute. He or she helps identify those issues that cannot be agreed, and starts working with all sides to try and reach agreement. They can provide legal information, but are acting impartially and not as advisers to either side.

Mediation can help avoid litigation in almost any type of legal dispute. The goal is a set of proposals which are acceptable to all involved. When this is reached, the mediator will provide a summary of them, together with a review of the financial information on which they are based. Legal advice on the proposals can then be obtained, and if they are agreed, the lawyers will prepare the final legally binding document.

In family law, the team provides mediation in disputes relating to where children are to live, contact arrangements, removal of children to another country, and the separation or divorce of a couple. Issues may also be mediated where individuals are dealing with the termination of a civil partnership, disputes between co-habitees, or disputes over the estate of a deceased person.

Head of Family Law at William Sturges is Andrew Todd; he is also a Resolution accredited Mediator and Collaborative Practitioner (www.resolution.org.uk) and Deputy District Judge at the Principal Registry of the Family Division.

For information relating to mediation in other fields please contact the relevant practice or business area team.