How mediation can help

MIAMs

MIAMs are essential for most people who need to take a separation or divorce matter to court.

We provide Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMS) and are authorised to sign the relevant court application forms to confirm that you have considered or tried mediation.

In our experience, having a separate individual meeting with your mediator before progressing to mediation is very important. It gives you an opportunity to explain to the mediator the background to your situation and what you feel needs to be sorted out. Your mediator will explain how mediation can help you. They will also check the best way of organising your mediation meeting to ensure everyone’s views are heard and understood. Finally, if having talked it through with our mediator, you feel this isn’t going to be the best way forward for you that is your choice – mediation is voluntary. You may have to consider it but you don’t have to do it – though for most people it is the best option to try first.

Workplace Disputes

Disagreements at work can be a major source of disruption and stress, both for the workers involved and their colleagues. Dealing with disputes drains precious resources and time, impacts on productivity, increases sick leave and reduces the quality of service to your customers. Left unchecked it can result in the loss of valuable staff and an unhappy workforce. Formal grievance or disciplinary proceedings can cost several thousand pounds and take up a considerable amount of time.

Using a qualified and experienced mediator is a quick, simple and cost effective way of resolving workplace disputes.

We will:-

• Talk with you about the issues that have led to the dispute
• Meet with the staff involved individually to ensure they feel heard and understood
• Organise mediation meetings involving relevant staff to help them find a suitable way forward.
• Provide any help we can on strategies to minimise future workplace conflict, saving you time and money in the longer term.
• We can also provide in-house training for your organisation on mediation and conflict resolution skills to help you ensure minor disagreements do not escalate into major problems.

Commercial Disputes

Whilst “See you in court!” is a common first response to a business dispute, a legal battle often just wastes time, money and your good reputation in an action that may not result in the desired outcome.

Mediation has been successfully used for many years to help resolve disputes, freeing you up to focus on growing your business rather than be distracted by conflict. Lorraine Bramwell Associates work with a range of businesses to help resolve disputes either within your business or with  suppliers or customers. We specialise in SMEs and family businesses where personal relationships are particularly relevant and we treat every business dispute with discretion and sensitivity.

• Mediation offers a quick, practical and confidential way to resolve:-
• Disagreements between business partners
• Disputes with other businesses or individuals
• Complaints from a dissatisfied customer
• Disputes with a business partner or agency with whom you need to maintain an ongoing commercial relationship.

We can also help you avoid conflict developing and escalating, supporting you in managing potentially sensitive discussions to keep them positive and focused on the best interests of your company.

Neighbour and community disputes

If you are unhappy with the behaviour of a neighbour or someone in your neighbourhood it can leave you with some very difficult choices. Do you get in to an argument with them? Report them to the authorities? Threaten legal action? Just live with it? Or move house? It may seem there is no good solution… but there is.

Mediators have been sorting out neighbourhood disputes for years. At Lorraine Bramwell Associates we work with local authorities, housing associations, private landlords, tenants, businesses and individual home owners to settle all sorts of difficulties including:-

• Noise problems
• Boundary disputes
• Littering
• Conduct of neighbours, children and pets
• Impact of buildings, garden features or activities on neighbours.

We help you sort out disagreements in a way that enables you to enjoy living in your home and neighbourhood without feeling concerned you will have to face disgruntled neighbours every time you leave the house. We cannot always turn neighbours into friends but we can help you find a way of living near each other comfortably and amicably.

Family Difficulties

Disputes between family members are very common and can be very distressing for all concerned. They cause divisions between family members, split loyalties of those around you and can result in families losing contact with siblings, children and parents. The effects can range from complicating or ruining a special family event to long term financial impact on family members leading to considerable hardship.

Litigation is often wholly unsuitable for the sensitive nature of such family difficulties which often have a long and complex history. Mediators however are trained and experienced in helping families deal with the root causes and find the best way forward for everyone involved.

• Disputes between parents and teenage or adult children
• Disagreements between siblings
• Arguments over wills and inheritances
• Problems deciding how best to care for an elderly or vulnerable loved one.

We have considerable experience of helping families through these difficult times in an impartial, practical but sensitive manner and have had considerable success in rebuilding communication between relatives who have sometimes not spoken for years. It is never too late to sort these matters out.

Dispute with a professional, institution or public service

Public services and institutions such as schools, local authorities, hospitals and universities are there to meet your needs but sometimes things go wrong. There may be a difference of view about what your needs are or what the professional or institution should be providing. High profile cases such as that of Charlie Gard have highlighted the distress and irreparable damage that can be caused when communication breaks down between professionals and those they are there to help. It led the judge in this case to state that “… mediation should be attempted in all cases such as this one even if all that it does is achieve a greater understanding by the parties of each other’s positions”

We have considerable experience of working with all sides to resolve disagreements around service provision.

Mediation can help with:-

• Medical disputes
• Education disputes
• Disputes involving reasonable adjustment for people with physical or developmental disabilities or mental health difficulties.
• Disputes regarding social service provision
• Disputes over care arrangements.
• Concerns about discrimination in service provision.

Our knowledge of both the rights of individuals to be treated with fairness and respect and the pressures imposed on often under resourced services means that we have an awareness of the complexity of these types of dispute. We have mediators with the skill and experience to successfully manage these difficult cases and help the parties to find the best way forward for everyone involved.