CONFLICT RESOLUTION: MEDIATION, MENTORING & COACHING

Do you have an inheritance problem crying out for mediation, but with limited funds to devote to it?

Is your Inheritance dispute a low value Estate and you’re worried about most of the Estate being depleted by legal and mediation fees?

Is your dispute non-monetary, such as which care-home, where to host the funeral, where ashes should be scattered, which church, how to re-gig the small family business roles…?

I can help you with these mediations on a structured package. It’s more rigid than Camel Mediation’s standard fees, and you’ll need to come prepared after doing some homework, but it can offer a great economic solution at just £500 split between the parties. That’s usually just £250 each. 

Introducing Hump-Day Wednesdays

My specialty is inheritance disputes, and sometimes – in my role as a consultant contentious probate solicitor – the disputes involve an Estate that is less than £250,000. This doesn’t leave much room for each parties’ lawyers’ fees, which at a rate of at least £300 plus VAT per hour of work can easily spiral to tens of thousands of pounds. Even organising an mediation can cost thousands if there is Counsel to instruct, meidation bundles to prepare and a veune to be agreed and organised. For complicated mediations, the price can sometimes match that of a milestone birthday bash, and not anywhere near as much fun.

Yes, the cost does this concentrates the minds on settlement, but it also adds a lot of pressure. And for some, it’s not feasible. And if you don’t end up with a settlement, even though most cases do settle, that’s a lot of money up in smoke.

If you’ve a dispute which is every bit as difficult to unravel, but are not sure how you will dedicate funds to a mediation, then please consider Camel Mediation’s Hump-Day Wednesday. It can be an economical and swift solution to a dispute where every penny counts.

Camel Mediation’s Hump Day Offer

This is for two participant mediations and delivered remotely be Zoom.

1. Eligibility:

You must be coming to mediation to explore settlement of your dispute in one of the following set of circumstances connected to a family dispute (excluding 'family law'):

• A monetary dispute on an Estate valued at less than £250,000; OR 
• the particular part of the Estate you wish to try and resolve must be worth less than £250,000 and we’re leaving the rest of the Estate for another day; OR
• A non-monetary issue dispute on matters such as which care home to choose, where /whether to bury or cremate, who will be appointed executor, who will take over MD role in the family business, who will take over ownership of a family pet etc.

2. How we manage the mediation for a set fixed fee of £500:

• We're dealing with one issue only, and we concentrate purely on resolving that issue.
• Any Paperwork must be sent 14 days before the mediation and limited to 15 pages of A4. I budget for less than thirty minutes reading and preparation time. 
• Both participants must meet with me on-line for forty-five minutes each at a mutually convenient time prior to the mediation once I have received papers. Evening and weekend appointments are available. We'll talk for longer if there is no paperwork. I set homework to be shared privately with me before the chosen mediation day.
• The participants join the zoom mediation at 9:45am for a 10:00am start and we have a strict finish time of 15:00pm, unless extra hours have been booked beforehand. 
• Each party pays £250 upfront (and their half-share of any extra hours booked). There’s no VAT. 
• Parties can cancel up to 14 days before the mediation and half of all paid fees will be returned to each participant.
• Participants can bring lawyers or other support professional, but usually attend solo. 
• It’s only on a Wednesday, but you knew that already, right? 

I offer this economical option because many inheritance disputes do not involve many hundred of thousands to be divided by already comfortable beneficiaries and the inheritance dispute can deplete all funds available. 

I know most people do not have a rainy-day funds for legal disputes, but for more modest estates, a small inheritance isn’t about school fees, expensive long-haul-flight holidays, paying off the mortgage or topping up pensions, but about precious funds that can help parents fund a child's education, be that an apprenticeship, university or driving lessons, to allow for early retirement from a back-breaking job, or at least to allow part-time work.  

I want to help and give back to the communities I grew up in. I'm from a state school with a divorced single parent upbringing. I was the first in my family to go to university, and I wouldn’t have been able to go had it not been free-university-education back in the 1990s. Things are even harder these days for aspiring families who have no support from generational-passed down family wealth.

But let’s not polish my halo. Hump-Day Wednesdays are far from altruism. By offering Hump Day Mediation, I get to get to hone my skills as a mediator and meet hugely interesting people. Offering hump-day Wednesdays has its feel-good factor that money can't buy. I hope we can all see it as win-win.

My wish to be available for the more modest disputes means I purposely limit my work to less than the VAT threshold, saving you a further 20% on your mediation fees. 

If you’ve still got questions, please contact me or go to my FAQs.