The Mediation Centre
7/8 St.Mary's Grove, Stafford, ST16 2AT

Mediation phoneline :
01785 273133

e-mail us at : tmc@nowellmeller.co.uk

Public Funding (free Legal Aid) may be available¹

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Plain Speaking

It’s bewildering at a time of great anxiety to be faced with impenetrable jargon. In mediation, we try to put these words into plain language, but we don’t always succeed. If you don’t understand anything, you should always tell us. Here is a glossary of terms encountered in divorce and mediation:

Co-mediation:

Where there are two mediators, usually one lawyer and one from another background

All-issues mediation:

Where all issues arising from a separation, such as the children, finance and property, are all discussed

Shuttled Mediation:

Where the parties remain in separate rooms

Memorandum of Understanding:

The official term for the Confidential Summary recording your Mutually Acceptable Proposals

Open Financial Summary:

The document recording the information you have provided about your current financial position

Public funding:

another term for all forms of Legal Aid

Legal Help:

the new term for publicly funded legal advice and assistance, what used to be called the “Green Form Scheme”

Help with Mediation:

a form of Legal Help providing free legal advice to those involved in mediation
Statutory charge: the mechanism by which public funding is clawed back from, or charged to, property and money recovered or preserved in legal proceedings; it does not apply to publicly funded mediation

© The Mediation Centre 2006

With acknowledgements to Deborah Levy and Family Law February 2001

Nowell Meller Solicitors are Investors in People