How To Start

Call the Mediation Clinic on 01227 863 026 and talk with our administrator, about your dispute. If you want,our administrator will explain to you how the mediation process works. If the Mediation Clinic administrator is unavailable, please leave a message on the telephone answering machine or by e-mail at mediationclinic@canterbury.ac.uk |with your name, contact details and a very brief outline of what your dispute is about. Both the answer machine and email are checked regularly on our mobile phones each day and we promise to try and answer all calls or e-mails within 24-hours .

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Contacting Other Parties

We will ask you to identify the other party or parties in the dispute and will ask you for their contact details or those of their solicitor if they are legally represented. We will then contact the other party or parties by phone or by e-mail and invite them to mediation, and if they accept, work out a suitable time for all parties at one of our five locations at our campuses in Canterbury , Medway , Folkestone , Broadstairs or Tunbridge Wells |.

Determining the Cost of Mediation

Once the parties have agreed to mediation, if it is a commercial dispute, we will ask both parties to estimate the monetary value of resolving the dispute. If it is a family/relationship dispute that does not involve a commercial business, we will then ask each party to tell us their current level of gross annual income. Each party will be assessed individually on this basis and will be charged according to the bands set out on the Fee Structure page. Mediation is FREE for those on a low income who are eligible for public funding (legal aid). You can find out if you are eligible for a fee waiver by completing the Legal Aid Calculator from Community Legal Advice.|

Determining The Mediator

All mediations at the CCCU Mediation Clinic are conducted using two mediators, or co-mediators. One will be a lead mediator, the other an associate mediator. The mediators for your dispute will be selected by the administrator based on their expertise of the subject of the dispute, their availability to meet with the parties in the proposed time frame, and confirmation that there is no conflict of interest on their part in taking this role. By using co-mediators we can bring to the table a wider range of both knowledge and skill which benefits all parties.

Most of our mediators are solicitors or academics who have a wide range of expertise in areas such as family law, contract law, personal injury, property and boundary issues as well as possessing a wide range of business experience. Our Panel of Mediators| who are the lead mediators in the co-mediation process, have all been trained and accredited by the Law Society and/or the Bar Council of England and Wales. In addition to that, the panel members all have a proven track record with the Mediation Clinic over the past three years. Our associate mediators are fully qualified professionals in their fields who have been trained as mediators and who are accumulating supervised mediation experience in order to meet the high standards for inclusion on the panel of mediators as set by the Canterbury Christ Church University Law School in accordance with the Law Society and Bar Council.

Formalising The Arrangements

Once the parties have agreed to arrangements, a formal written agreement will be sent to them, which they will then sign in each other's presence on the day of the mediation, prior to the beginning of the discussions. The agreement includes the confidentiality agreement which binds all parties to the process. The parties will also be sent a short questionnaire asking them to give details of their version of events surrounding the dispute. This questionnaire will be in a word document format which can be returned by e-mail prior to the mediation to brief the mediators .

Paying For The Mediation

A pro-forma invoice will be sent to you along with a form to process your payment by credit/debit card for an initial payment covering the minimum time allocated to the mediation prior to the start of the meeting. Payments are made directly to the University Finance Department. Following the mediation, a final invoice will be sent to you, which would include any further charges if the mediation went over the initial time allocated and additional time was charged as set out in the  what does mediation cost|  page. Mediation fees are not refundable if the mediation is cancelled by a party within 24-hours of the scheduled meeting or if the party fails to turn up at the meeting. In the event of such a cancellation, the fees paid by the other party/parties will be refunded to them.

Student Observers

As the University Law School is first and foremost a training institution, we try whenever possible to allow our students the opportunity to observe real-time mediations as alternative dispute resolution methods are a required component in their legal training. Therefore, we often ask the parties involved in mediation for their permission to allow our students to sit in the room and act as observers. The students will also sign the confidentially agreement prior to the start of the mediation. All parties must agree in advance to this request and we fully understand if any party, for whatever reason, feels this would be inappropriate.