West Coast Family Mediation Services

Family Mediation in Victoria, BC

Mediation is generally significantly less expensive than litigation. There is no wasted time and it can be scheduled to minimize time away from employment and other responsibilities.

In mediation, parties cooperatively plan and guide the process, effectively designing their own solution. This allows for you to have greater control over the outcome when negotiating parenting, support or family property matters. If you live in Victoria, BC you may wish to retain a neutral, third party as a family mediator to facilitate the exchange of information, discuss options and reach agreements.

At West Coast Family Mediation, we have demonstrated a long-term commitment through our pioneering work to out-of-court settlement processes, including creating a dedicated mediation space in our office. This is what we do and have been doing, since the early 2000’s. Our mediators can create a safe environment for you to look for desired outcomes for both parties (you and your spouse/partner) as a team by realistically examining options that concern co-parenting, sharing of family assets, debt and child or spousal support.

How does it work?

You will be assisted by our highly experienced mediators who have focused in this area for over 20 years including bringing collaborative family law to Europe. They will help you to identify the issues, exploring options with the goal of agreeing on solutions that you can rely on for many years to come in the form of an enforceable, written agreement. Everyone attending the mediation signs a mediation agreement which sets out the basic rules such as confidentiality and disclosure of financial information. The structure of the mediation is up to you. The mediator provides legal information but cannot provide legal advice to either spouse/parent, so it is helpful if each spouse has their own lawyer, but it is not mandatory. In more complex matters, a neutral financial consultant may assist with tax and other matters; in emotionally charged matters, divorce coaches or a child specialist may be enlisted. Most family law cases resolve at mediation with binding agreements that covers all aspects of your family dispute including child protection matters, child and spousal support, parenting arrangements and family property division, all the while avoiding the expense and stress of litigation.

Our mediators strive for:

• a low stress and efficient resolution but as these kinds of negotiations involve highly loaded topics, conflict is inevitably triggered at some point between the parties but then managed by applying low conflict models of negotiation
• applying our highly skilled mediation techniques while working with the parties in communication models that ease the conflict that the parties can then bring into their everyday life, with positive effect
• working with ex-spouses who will always be parents in a child-centred process, to support new ways of co-operating that will benefit the children every day when attending parent teacher conferences, sporting activities, graduations and weddings
• creating a road map for re-constructing the family in a new and positive way that also serves as a legally binding and enforceable separation agreement

West Coast Family Mediation is part of West Coast Family Law.