CONFLICT RESOLUTION: MEDIATION, MENTORING & COACHING

Do you have an inheritance dispute with limited funds for mediation? 

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 a funeral, where ashes should be scattered, which church, how to re-gig the small family business roles…?

Might you want to dip your toe into mediation and divide the issues into seperate mediation days?

I can help you with all the above. Hump Day Wednesday is 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 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 hundreds of pounds, and if the mediation is complicated, with Counsel also involved and mediation bundles to prepare and a venue to be agreed and organised, then the cost will spiral into the thousands. One participant commented that the mediation cost more than his 60th birthday bash. 

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 to be spending thsi level of funds on a modest inheritance. And if it does not settle, and be reassured that most do, the dispute remains. 

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 traditional 'family law'):

• A monetary dispute on an Estate valued at less than £250,000; OR 
• The particular issue you wish to try and resolve is worth less than £250,000 and the solution is a division of those funds (no TOLATA or variations to the Will please); OR
• We're focusing solely on one issue of a bigger Estate and leaving the rest of the Estate for another day, and possibly another mediator or a court process; 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. Sometimes resolving one sticking point, such as division of jewellery, and leaving the other issues for another day can pave the way to an early resolution of the whole inheritance dispute.
• Any paperwork must be sent 14 days before the mediation and limited to 15 pages of A4. I budget for around thirty minutes reading and preparation time. 
• Both participants must meet with me on-line for approximately 30 - 45 minutes each at a mutually convenient time prior to the mediation. Evening and weekend appointments are available. I set 'homework' to be shared privately with me before the chosen mediation day.
• The participants join the zoom mediation at staggered times from 9:45am for a 10:00am start and we have a strict finish time of 15:00pm.* There is usually no joint session. 
• Each party pays £250 upfront. There’s no VAT. 
• Participants can bring lawyers or other support professional, but often attend solo. Please note, I cannot offer legal advice to any participant who choses to attend solo.
• It’s only on a Wednesday, but you knew that already, right? 

*If you wish to continue to mediate after 3pm, another session can be booked. Sometimes a more complicated and emotional dispute benefits from a piecemeal approach of several mediations. Sometimes participants find the groundwork now means they can continue to resolve their dispute without the help of a mediator. Sometimes the one Hump Day Wednesday is all that is required.

Why the offer? 

Many inheritance disputes do not involve many hundred of thousands to be divided by already comfortable beneficiaries, or a full day mediation process of several issues is too much for the participants all at once. 

My experience as a consultant solicitor in the contentious probate field has taught me that emotions play a huge part in inheritance disputes and for more modest estates, a small inheritance isn’t about paying off the mortgage, topping up pensions, school fees and expensive long-haul-flight holidays, 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 sincerely want to help the funds left to participants to benefit the participants and not be eaten up by a court battle.  

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 this would not have been possible for me without the free-university-education we all enjoyed in the 1990s. I want to help 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 Wednesdays I get to get to hone my skills as a mediator and meet hugely interesting people. There's a feel good factor and a gaining of more experience as a mediator that money can't buy. I hope we can all see it as win-win.

My wish to devote time to continual learning, maintain a practice as a contentious probate consultant solicitor, have time to be a mum and for myself AND to be available for the more modest disputes means I purposely limit my mediations to less than seven per month. This has the advantage of staying below the VAT threshold and saving my clients a further 20% on mediation fees. 

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