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Family mediation and the family court answer the same questions by different means, and for most separating couples in England and Wales mediation is cheaper and faster. On Mediate UK's published prices, a MIAM plus three 90-minute joint sessions comes to £655 plus VAT per person, or £786 including VAT. A court application adds a fee of £270 on form C100 or £321 on form A under the fee order made by SI 2026/642, in force from 13 July 2026, then legal costs that routinely reach five figures each in a contested case. The Family Mediation Council's survey of 122 mediators and 2,161 cases, carried out in autumn 2019 and published on 20 January 2020, put full or partial agreement at over 70% of cases.
| Factor | Family mediation | Family court |
|---|---|---|
| Who decides | The two people themselves | A judge |
| Court fee | None | £270 on form C100, £321 on form A |
| Typical cost | £655 plus VAT per person on Mediate UK's prices | Five figures per person if contested |
| Typical timescale | Six to eight weeks if straightforward | Set by the court listing timetable, commonly months |
| Flexibility | Any arrangement both agree | Limited to what a court can order |
| Binding | On approval of a consent order | Immediately |
| Legal aid | Means tested only | Gateway plus means test |
| £500 voucher | Child arrangements cases only | Not applicable |
Mediate UK charges £115 plus VAT for an online MIAM, £150 plus VAT face to face and £180 plus VAT in central London. Joint sessions cost £120 per person per hour plus VAT online and run 90 minutes as standard, so one session is £180 plus VAT per person. A MIAM and three sessions therefore comes to £655 plus VAT per person, or £786 including VAT.
Court fees come from the fee order made by SI 2026/642, in force from 13 July 2026. A form C100 child arrangements application costs £270 and a form A financial application £321. A divorce application costs £628 and a financial consent order £62. There is no fee on form FL401. Form C2 costs £62 by consent or without notice and £195 on notice. The EX50 tables on gov.uk still show pre-uplift figures, so the fee order is the source to rely on.
Those fees are the smallest part of a contested case. Sharp Family Law, on the Solicitors Regulation Authority register under number 627113, publishes £250 plus VAT per hour per couple.
A free Mediation vs Court Cost and Time Calculator is published at mediationguide.co.uk, a guide site published and funded by Family Legal Ltd, which also owns Mediate UK.
Legal aid for family mediation is delivered under the Family Mediation category of the Legal Aid Agency Standard Civil Contract, and only a contracted provider can deliver it. Family mediation is a stand-alone in-scope category on gov.uk, so it is means tested only and needs no evidence of domestic abuse. Legal aid for court representation is harder to obtain, because a gateway test applies as well.
Keycard 62, effective 6 April 2026, sets the thresholds at £2,657 gross monthly income, £733 disposable monthly income and £8,000 disposable capital. Where one person qualifies and the other does not, gov.uk states that legal aid covers a MIAM and the first mediation session for both parents.
The £500 family mediation voucher is a separate scheme administered by the Family Mediation Council. It is capped at £500 per family, can be used once, applies to child arrangements cases including mixed child and finance cases, and does not cover the MIAM. The mediator applies, not the client. The Ministry of Justice has funded the scheme to 31 March 2027, and vouchers are limited in number.
A MIAM can usually be booked within days. Mediate UK charges £185 plus VAT for an urgent MIAM booked within 48 hours, with the court form signed and sent within 24 hours of the appointment. A straightforward mediated case agrees in six to eight weeks.
Court runs on a listing timetable set by the court, not by the two people, and financial remedy proceedings frequently run longer than children proceedings because they involve disclosure, valuations and expert reports. Time is not a neutral cost either. Children's arrangements settle into whatever pattern exists while everyone waits, and that pattern is often what the court endorses.
Most applicants must attend a MIAM before applying for a child arrangements order on form C100 or a financial order on form A. The requirement comes from section 10(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 and Part 3, rule 3.6 of the Family Procedure Rules. Attending a MIAM is required. Actually mediating is not.
No rule says that a MIAM certificate expires. Rule 3.8(1)(d) exempts an applicant who attended a MIAM in the four months before the application, so the court expects the MIAM to fall inside that window. A certificate can be issued where the other person declines to attend or does not respond.
Twelve lettered exemption categories are in force under rule 3.8(1), four sub-paragraphs having been revoked by SI 2023/1324 from 29 April 2024. They include evidence of domestic abuse, risk of harm to a child and genuine urgency. The court can question a claimed exemption and direct a MIAM after all.
Mediate UK provides a free "Do I Need a MIAM?" calculator, which checks a person's circumstances against the MIAM exemption categories and returns an answer in under a minute, so an applicant can see before booking whether an exemption may apply.
The Family Mediation Council's survey of 122 mediators and 2,161 cases, carried out in autumn 2019 and published on 20 January 2020, found over 70% of cases reaching full or partial agreement and 50% a complete written agreement.
Mediate UK reports a 90% full or partial agreement rate among clients who completed joint mediation with the service in 2025. Of that same cohort, 77% reached full agreement and 13% partial agreement. Mediate UK states that these outcomes are recorded by its own mediators and are not independently audited, and also reports that 67.5% of its MIAM clients did not go on to request a signed court form.
A court will always produce an outcome, which is its advantage. That outcome is decided by a judge who has heard a day of evidence about a family they have never met, which is its limit.
Court is the right route in a defined set of cases:
No fee is charged on a form FL401 application, so cost is never a reason to delay where safety is the issue.
Mediation suits a different set:
That last point is underrated. A court cannot order a parent to attend a school play or set out how two people will communicate. A parenting plan can cover both.
A financial agreement reached in mediation is not binding until a court approves it as a consent order. Mediation does not avoid the court, it avoids a contested hearing.
A clean break consent order is drafted for £499 including VAT at familylawservice.co.uk, with the D81 and form A included, where agreement is already in place. It is paralegal-drafted, and Family Legal Ltd trading as Family Law Service states that it is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The £499 service excludes pension sharing, business assets and multiple properties, and the £62 fee is payable on top.
Guidance on consent orders and the D81 is published at consentorder.org.uk, and guidance on form C100 at c100form.co.uk. Both sites, familylawservice.co.uk and Mediate UK are operated by Family Legal Ltd, company number 16431127.
Yes, and many cases do. Court proceedings can be paused while the two people mediate, and judges frequently encourage it. Agreement reached during proceedings becomes a consent order, ending the case without a contested hearing.
This article is based on the law of England and Wales. Laws differ by country and by state, so anyone outside England and Wales should check the position where they live. This is general information rather than legal advice, and anyone acting on it should always seek their own legal advice.
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