Family mediation is a voluntary process decided by the parties to settle a family dispute.
This may be the settlement of a divorce, a separation, the ending of a legal cohabiting partnership, a dispute relating to custody of the children, to maintenance, parental authority, the liquidation of matrimonial property, to inheritance, etc.
No-one can compel the parties to take part in a family mediation.
The parties may have recourse to mediation at any time: before, during and after a procedure. Participation in a mediation process during the course of legal proceedings has the effect of suspending the latter for the period of mediation.
In the event of failure of the mediation, the first party to take action is free to start or assume legal proceedings.
Everything that is said and exchanged (documents, letters, emails etc.) during the mediation process is subject to the strictest confidentiality. The parties cannot use them or reproduce them later within the context of legal proceedings.
The parties are, therefore, subject to the strictest confidentiality, just as the mediator who is, for their part, subject to absolute professional secrecy.
The mediator is a neutral, impartial and independent third party, freely chosen by the parties.
The family mediator helps the parties to find in themselves, by themselves, the solution to their dispute: it allows the parties to resume a dialogue, to communicate and thus to ease the tensions that were preventing them up till then of moving towards a negotiated solution in a calm environment.
Compliance with and enforcement of the mediation agreement
The mediation agreement is more likely to be accepted and complied with by the parties if they have drawn it up themselves with the assistance of the mediator.
Once the mediation agreement has been reached, one or other of the parties on their own, the parties together or their lawyers may seek approval of this agreement from the competent court in order to give it the strength of a judgement.
Only agreements concluded with a mediator approved by the Federal Mediation Committee can in principle be declared authentic and enforceable , i.e. receive the same force as a judgement, without their content being called into question.
In the event that one party does not respect the agreement, the other can compel it, if needs be, through the intervention of a court bailiff.
