Welcome to The Mediation Centre

What is mediation?

• Mediation is a process that helps you resolve your legal disputes co-operatively and effectively. 
• Typically, the parties to the dispute sit down together with an impartial third party in a confidential setting
• In the last 20 years mediation has grown to the extent that it is now seen as an Appropriate Dispute Resolution process in many, if not most, legal disputes.

The Mediation Centre has a national reputation for the quality of its work and its engagement in entrenched conflicts. It offers:

• Comprehensive family mediation dealing with children, finance, property and pensions
• Civil and commercial mediation offering an alternative to the Courts whilst preserving the business relationship
• Training, Consultancy and Leadership in the development of Mediation
• Public Funding (free Legal Aid) is available

We believe that:

• Everyone should be given the best opportunity possible to explore whether they can resolve their family or civil disputes co-operatively
• We have the responsibility to provide a service that is robust, professional and creative enough to provide that opportunity
• When this happens, it is likely to be cheaper and quicker, to preserve family or business relationships, and also to benefit innocent third parties such as children
• Mediators must be able to provide a variety of services to meet ever more complex and entrenched family and commercial legal disputes
• Mediation often works best in partnership with lawyers and other legal services, especially in difficult cases
• “Alternative” Dispute Resolution must be at least as well resourced as other forms of dispute resolution, and backed by a team of advisors and management
• Mediation is a creative process, nurtured not only by legal knowledge and expertise but also by its wider relationships with the creative arts and commitment to co-operation and collaboration in all walks of life
• Family and Civil Mediation are parts of a growing worldwide movement to resolve conflicts non-adversarially

Our main aims are:

• To provide assistance of a quality, sensitivity and professionalism at least equal to that of the best specialist family lawyers or The Court Service
• To provide an Appropriate Dispute Resolution process that meets yours and your family’s or business’s needs
• To offer a flexible, expert, ADR process that will give the best opportunity for resolution of the hardest cases
• To recognise diversity, in the subject matter of disputes, the models of ADR offered, and in the communities served 
• To provide affordable training and consultancy to support our own services and those of our colleagues
• To promote mediation nationally as a recognised alternative to litigation and the Courts

Separating? What Next?

Have you just separated from your partner?  Are you wondering what to do next? At such a stressful time, what do you do about the house, the children, the assets, the debts?  How can you both move on with your lives when you can't seem to have a civil conversation about the issues that need to be sorted out?  Mediation might be the answer.  With the help of a mediator you just might be able to sit in the same room and have some meaningful dialogue about what is best for both of you and the chidlren -what will work for both of you?  Each separation has its own unique problems and we have a trained team of mediators and support staff who can answer any questions you may have at this difficult time.  Have a look around our website; there is lots of useful information here, including some case studies which may be of interest to you.  Alternatively, if you prefer to speak to someone - give us a ring.

A Local Service with a national reputation

The Mediation Centre was established in 1997. Our parent organisation is Nowell Meller Solicitors Limited, a law firm serving Stafford and Staffordshire since 1956.

We offer privately and publicly funded mediation across the West Midlands. Mediation is mainly offered at our main office in Stafford and our outposts in Hanley and Lichfield, or, in the case of civil mediation, in Solicitors’ offices or Courts, but we can also arrange appointments across the region where required – see contact us

All of our mediators are members of specialist panels established by the Family Mediators Association, Resolution (formerly the Solicitors Family Law Association), ADR Net, the Association of Midland Mediators, the Law Society and other professional bodies with considerable experience in their chosen specialism of mediation. For more information, click here.

About This Website

• Potential referrers can use it to find out more about us
• Colleagues can use it to download resources (please acknowledge us where appropriate) and to get up-to-date information
• Mediators, lawyers and others can use it as a link to other services and information

Please contact us with ideas or comments so that we can improve our service and encourage the greater use of mediation in appropriate cases. 



 
7/8 St. Mary’s Grove Stafford ST16 2AT
Mediation Phoneline 01785 273133
Fax: 01785 273122   
DX: 14557 Stafford 1
VAT no. 278 6337 16
e mail tmc@nowellmeller.co.uk
web  www.themediationcentre.co.uk  

“In the beginning is the conversation”

“We didn’t realize we could decide so much for ourselves.”