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Most people going through mediation find it helpful to have legal advice to support them. You can arrange this at any time and your mediator may also recommend you do if you are talking about things that relate to a legal issue. The mediator can give you information about local family solicitors and how to choose one. If you get legal aid for mediation, you may also get free legal advice during mediation.

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If your situation changes and the arrangements aren’t working, you can go back to the mediator to change the original agreement.

If the court has made your agreement into a legally binding order and somebody doesn’t follow it, you should consider whether the problem is capable of being sorted out with the help of a mediator. If you think it cannot, you may wish to go back to the court to ask for the order to be enforced.

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Contact a mediator as soon as you need help sorting things out. Even if you’ve been separated for a while, or if your case has already gone to court, mediation can still help to resolve things.

You can’t usually take your case to court until you find out if mediation can help you first. If you can’t show that you’ve considered it, the judge may stop or delay proceedings until you have.

Once you’ve found a mediator, the next step is to attend a first meeting with them to find out if it’s right for you. Sometimes this is called a Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting (MIAM).

If you think you need legal advice to help you during mediation, this can be arranged at any time during the process. You might be able to get legal aid to pay for this.

If your case is not suitable for mediation you will still need to show the judge you’ve considered it by filling in the relevant court form.