Family Mediation
Allison’s family law practice has always focused on out of court resolutions. Allison has the personality, skills, creativity, and legal knowledge to create lasting and satisfying agreements that both parties can accept. It’s what she has been doing for years in her legal practice, and as a trained mediator, she can sit down with both parties to find common ground and ultimately written agreements. Allison’s experience in the courtroom means she knows what orders a judge is likely to make, and she knows the time, mental energy and money families spend in a courtroom process. This knowledge can greatly assist families in working together to tackle the issues in front of them instead of dragging out the conflict. Most clients want an agreement and to move forward after separation.
When Allison acts as mediator, she cannot provide each person with independent legal advice. If you need advice about how to divide assets, how to arrange parenting schedules, child and spousal support, Allison can refer you to another respected lawyer in the West Kootenay area.
Allison Edgar is a family law mediator accredited by the Law Society of British Columbia.
Mediation Process
If you are interested in mediating the issues surrounding your separation, please let Allison know that you would like to proceed with mediation rather than obtaining her services as a lawyer.
Allison will ask both spouses to fill out a pre-mediation intake form, which gives her a sense of the couple’s basic background, what topics need to be addressed, both spouse’s goals, and how each spouse sees the issues before them.
Allison will have a preliminary meeting with each person, typically by phone call, to introduce herself and explain the process, and screen for any issues of power imbalance and family violence. This is a requirement of all accredited family law mediators in British Columbia and it gives the mediator an opportunity to ensure the family will be best served by mediation, as well as to plan the in person mediation session to best meet everyone’s needs.
Mediation will typically take place in two or more shorter sessions. Allison’s role is to guide the process, assist in generating creative ideas and solutions, and helping the spouses themselves craft the final resolution that will be documented in a formal separation agreement. Allison drafts the separation agreement. Throughout the process, Allison may encourage the spouses to each speak to independent lawyers where necessary and have separate lawyers review the final separation agreement before signing.