Mediation Costs: What Family Mediation Really Costs

Part of: Family Law Specialists

Nobody sets a national price for family mediation. Your mediation costs turn on the mediator you pick, the sessions you need, and one government voucher. The Family Mediation Council is the body the court rules point to: an “authorised family mediator” is someone it has identified as qualified. Its guide figure for mediation costs is £130 to £170 per person per hour. That range shifts with the mediator’s location and the issues you bring. On top of it sits the government voucher, worth up to £500. Our family law specialists assist and advise alongside mediation, not instead of it. This page covers England and Wales only.

Reviewed by: Garry Steedman, Family Law Consultant (Divorce, Children & TOLATA), Kabir Family Law

What is family mediation?

Family mediation is a process in which a trained, independent mediator helps separating couples agree arrangements for their children and their money. Taking part is voluntary, though you usually need a first meeting before you can apply to court. What you agree is not legally binding until a court makes it into an order.

A court has no power to make you mediate (PD3A, para 10A). In a financial case, though, refusing without good reason can count against you on costs. Before you book, check what family mediation costs.

How does divorce mediation work?

Divorce mediation runs in five stages: an assessment meeting, joint sessions, an exchange of financial information, a written summary of what you agreed, and a consent order that makes it binding. Agreement usually takes three to five sessions. The divorce application itself needs no mediation meeting, as the rule covers only applications about children and money.

1. At the first meeting, known as a MIAM, the mediator tells you whether your case suits mediation.
2. You usually sit with the mediator together, but you can ask for separate rooms or video sessions, and a child can sometimes speak to the mediator.
3. Each of you gives full and frank disclosure of your finances, which the mediator does not check. A mediator cannot advise either of you, so take legal advice during mediation if anything looks missing.
4. The mediator writes up your proposals, often as a memorandum of understanding and a financial summary. That document is not legally binding.
5. You ask the court to approve the agreed financial terms as a consent order, for the £62 fee in the court fees table.

How much does mediation cost in England and Wales?

There is no fixed price. The mediation costs UK families pay vary one mediator at a time. Each practice fixes its own hourly rate, so the honest answer is a range, plus the things that move you inside it.

The Council tells the public to expect £130 to £170 per person per hour. That covers the sessions and the paperwork a mediator produces afterwards. It warns that the figure moves with the mediator’s location and the issues you raise.

Two features of the guide figure matter more than the numbers. The first is per person. Unless you agree otherwise, you each pay, so one bill shows half the picture. The second is that the quoted rate usually covers the written outcome as well as the talking. A mediator who charges more per hour is not automatically the dearer choice.

Before any of that comes the first meeting. GOV.UK’s voucher guidance puts it at around £120 per person where you pay privately, and adds that estimated fees vary with your location and the mediator’s experience. That estimate has sat on the guidance since 2021, so ask each mediator for their own figure in writing rather than budgeting from it. That meeting is a legal requirement before most family court applications. Only an authorised family mediator may hold one (FPR r.3.9(1)).

How much does a divorce mediator charge?

Divorcing couples ask this most often. The cost of mediation in a divorce is not a separate tariff. The same hourly rate applies to the children, the house, or both. What changes is the number of sessions. So the cost of a divorce mediator tracks how many strands you bring and how ready your figures are. The cost for divorce mediation falls the moment a session stops waiting on paperwork you could have gathered beforehand.

Is the mediation voucher scheme still open, and what is it worth?

Yes, on the most recent government statement we can find. On 15 May 2026 the Ministry of Justice announced another year of the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. The announcement promises “£500 towards their mediation costs”. Funding runs to over £7m a year, and more than 54,000 parents have used the scheme since 2021. The minister’s own wording calls it a “non-means tested £500 mediation voucher”, so your income is not the test.

What the voucher is not, though, is a certainty. GOV.UK calls the scheme time-limited. It says vouchers “are limited in number and will be offered to eligible parties until they are no longer available”. Your mediator tells you whether any are left. The May 2026 announcement bought the scheme a year, and no end date for it has been published, so treat the voucher as money that may be there rather than money you have. Ask at the first meeting.

The eligibility rule catches people out. Under the GOV.UK guidance, the scheme covers a dispute or application about a child. It also covers family finances, but only where a dispute about a child runs alongside. A purely financial case does not qualify. You can claim once per family, whether your case has one strand or two. The £500 goes straight to the mediator once the sessions conclude, so you never handle it.

One more limit is easy to miss: the voucher never pays for the first meeting. That fee stands on its own, whatever happens next.

Who pays for mediation, and can you split the cost?

Splitting mediation costs is a conversation, not a rule. The default is that each of you pays your own share, because each of you is the mediator’s client. Many mediators invoice each participant separately for their half of each session. That is why rates come per person per hour, not per meeting.

You can agree something different. Couples do agree that one person pays the lot, or that the bill comes out of a joint account. Some weight the split by income. Mediators arrange all of it routinely. Nothing about that agreement changes the outcome of the mediation itself. Settle it before the first session, so it never becomes the argument that derails the second.

Where the money is tight on one side only, say so early. A mediator can sometimes stage the sessions. The voucher, where your case qualifies, attaches to the case rather than to a person. Do not let the question sit unspoken until an invoice arrives.

Mediation costs compared with a court application: where does the money go?

The court publishes its fees, so this half of the comparison is exact. The figures below come from the family court fees list (EX50), updated on 13 July 2026. They are the fee alone. Professional help, time off work and the months in between all cost more.

Read the last two rows together, because they are the punchline. Reaching terms out of court and asking a judge to approve them costs £62. Asking a judge to decide the same argument costs £321, plus a timetable you do not control. Our guide to the cost of a financial order takes that comparison further. Our overview of family law costs covers how fees build up across a case.

What drives the price of mediation up or down?

Sessions are the unit of cost. Anything that changes the number of sessions moves your mediation costs more than the hourly rate does. These are the levers.

• How many issues you bring. Arrangements for the children alone usually take fewer sessions than children plus a house, pensions and debts.
• How complete your figures are. A session spent waiting for a pension statement is a session you have paid for twice.
• Where the mediator practises. The Family Mediation Council says rates vary by part of the country.
• The format. Sessions in separate rooms, or over video, carry their own rhythm and their own costs. Our guides to mediation without being in the same room and remote sessions explain how each works.
• Whether a child speaks to the mediator directly. Bringing a young person into the conversation is a separate piece of work. Our guide to hearing the child’s voice sets out what it involves.
• The written outcome. The mediator’s summary of what you agreed is part of the work. Its cost usually sits inside the quoted rate.
• What happens afterwards. A summary is not a court order. Turning agreed terms into one is a separate step with its own £62 fee.

Must you pay for the first meeting before you can go to court?

For most private family applications, yes. Section 10(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 is blunt. “Before making a relevant family application, a person must attend a family mediation information and assessment meeting” (CFA 2014, s.10). Your court application must then carry a mediator’s confirmation that you attended. Or it must claim one of the listed exemptions (FPR r.3.7).

The exemptions are a closed list, set out in FPR r.3.8. In outline, they cover:

• evidence of domestic abuse;
• a child who is the subject of a local authority section 47 enquiry, or of a child protection plan;
• genuine urgency, including risk to life, liberty or physical safety, risk of harm to a child, or a risk that a child will be taken abroad;
• attendance at a meeting or another out-of-court process in the previous four months;
• bankruptcy, where the application is financial;
• an application made without notice, or one where a child is a party;
• access problems, such as no authorised family mediator with an office within fifteen miles, or none able to see you within fifteen business days.

Claiming an exemption you cannot support is a false economy. The court inquires into every claimed exemption. If the claim does not hold, the court will direct you to attend a meeting. It may adjourn the case to let that happen (FPR r.3.10). By then you have paid the court fee and waited for a hearing. The first meeting is still ahead of you, which adds to your mediation costs rather than saving them. Our guide to the C100 application shows where that confirmation sits on the form.

What does mediation cost you if you refuse it altogether?

Potentially a costs order. In financial remedy proceedings the general rule is that nobody pays the other side’s bill. A party’s conduct can move the court off that rule. When it decides what order to make, the court must have regard to “any failure by a party, without good reason, to attend a MIAM … or attend non-court dispute resolution” (FPR r.28.3(7)(aa)). Refusal is no longer a free option.

The court also keeps asking the question as the case runs. It must consider at every stage whether an out-of-court route is appropriate. When the court requires it, a party must file a form setting out their views (FPR r.3.3). Our guide to the form that asks for those views explains what a judge reads into the answer. Meanwhile, unreasonable conduct in family proceedings shows what a costs order looks like in practice.

Before you book: are your mediation costs under control?

Pick the description that fits your case, then tick what is already true. The list shows which fees apply to you, and where the gaps are.

What goes wrong with mediation costs, and what it adds to the bill

Most of the avoidable spending happens before anyone sits down, or in the weeks after everyone stands up. These are the patterns we see.

• Assuming the quoted rate is the whole bill. The first meeting carries its own fee, and the rate is per person.
• Counting on a voucher before anyone has checked. GOV.UK says vouchers are limited in number. A purely financial dispute does not qualify at all.
• Arriving without the figures. Every missing statement costs a chunk of an hour at the mediator’s rate, twice over.
• Treating the summary as the finish line. What you agreed is not an order until a judge makes one. A court makes an order in the agreed terms only on the prescribed information that comes with the application (Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, s.33A). Our guide to the financial consent order covers that step, and what happens after the court seals it covers the next one.
• Claiming an exemption to save the first fee. The court inquires into it, and an invalid claim buys you an adjournment you have paid for.
• Picking the format for the wrong reason. If the same room is the problem, say so at the assessment stage. Paying for a session that ends early helps nobody. Our comparison of mediation and a private decision-maker is worth reading if you are weighing the two.
• Leaving the children’s arrangements informal. A written plan is cheaper than a second dispute. Our practical guide to parenting plans shows what to write down.

How do our specialists assist and advise on mediation costs?

Our specialists assist and advise alongside mediation. They explain which mediation costs your case will actually attract, and what the voucher can and cannot reach. They also price the court route, in case mediation does not resolve everything. A specialist helps you work out what to have to hand before the first session. The hours you pay for then go on deciding rather than waiting. If part of your case is one mediation cannot settle, better to learn that at the start.

A free initial consultation is a conversation with a specialist, who gives you initial advice on your circumstances. It does not include drafting or reviewing anything. Before the call, note what is in dispute, whether a child features, and what each mediator you contacted charges.

Frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.

Expert Tip

Families commonly ask whether paying for mediation is worth it at all when the other person seems immovable. Two things change that calculation. The first meeting is a requirement for most court applications anyway, so you rarely avoid it. In a financial case the court must also weigh any failure to attend it without good reason. Book it, ask about the voucher, and keep the receipts.

Iblal Iqbal, Partner & Family Law Strategist