Every Irish solicitor must advise you about mediation before family proceedings issue — the Mediation Act 2017 requires it. This practice gives that advice from the Law Society’s actual Diploma in Mediation — which means giving it honestly: what mediation genuinely offers when real money is at stake, and what it cannot replace.
What Mediation Genuinely Offers
For asset cases specifically: privacy beyond even the in-camera rule — a mediated settlement airs the business’s figures in a private room, not a courtroom; preserved relationships where they must continue — the family business both still hold roles in, the farm families who’ll meet at marts for decades, the co-parenting years ahead; speed and cost against contested proceedings; and creative structure — mediated deals can be built with a flexibility contested hearings rarely produce: staged payments, business arrangements, the terms two people design for their actual lives.
What It Cannot Replace
Three things, honestly. Disclosure: mediation without sworn-standard financial disclosure is negotiation blindfolded — the Affidavit of Means discipline belongs in mediated cases too, and a mediated deal built on concealment is as reopenable as any other. Independent advice: the mediator facilitates; they don’t advise either party — each spouse needs their own solicitor pricing the deal before signing, especially where pensions and business values hide in the numbers. The court’s role: divorce still requires a court order and the court must still satisfy itself on proper provision — mediation shapes the terms; it doesn’t replace the ruling.
The honest fit: mediation suits parties who’ll disclose honestly and negotiate genuinely — and fails where concealment or steamrolling is the other side’s strategy, which is why the prepared-for-hearing posture stays on even in mediated cases. Advice from the Diploma means knowing the difference on sight.
Considering mediation with real assets involved? Honest guidance either way: 01 5827148.