What is a Roundtable Meeting?
These can take place with both lawyers and their respective clients all in the same room or, if either of the clients feel uncomfortable with this, then the clients can each be in separate rooms with the lawyers meeting.
What are the Benefits of a Roundtable Meeting?
Speed
With everyone in one place it is quick to be able to take instructions and make progress.
Time
Progress can be made in single meetings instead of months of exchanges of correspondence.
Accuracy
There is less room for misinterpretation if everyone is in the same place around the table then it's generally easier for people to explain their positions fully and make any necessary queries.
Additional professional opinion
A family consultant can be used as part of the process to help clients with any emotional issues that are causing difficulty in reaching an agreement.
Costs
It takes place in real time thus limiting the potential costs.
Representation
With your lawyer present there is less risk or worry about making decisions within the process.
How Does it Work in Practice?
A meeting time, date and place would be agreed involving you, your ex-partner and your respective legal representatives coming together ideally in the same room, usually with an agreed agenda, with the aim of exploring ideas to try and find agreed solutions. The meeting encourages dialogue and can provide an opportunity to hear one another's point of view safely and effectively.
Sometimes being able to cut to the real issue or understand someone's point of view can be lost within the noise of legal correspondences and having a meeting in real time can be helpful. It can also cut costs as everybody is in one place at the same time.
Roundtable meetings can cover any aspect of family law including financial and children’s arrangements. They can also involve third parties where appropriate for example bringing in a pension or financial expert. Who should be present in each meeting has to be pre-determined and agreed unusually in the agenda would be set up between the legal representatives beforehand.
How Long Does it Take?
You may find that one meeting/session between 60 to 90 minutes long is all you need, although realistically most people find three to four sessions are required. Sessions usually take place over a number of weeks but the timetable is set by the participants and remains subject to everyone’s availability. However, those meetings over the course of a short space of time can often achieve much more than months of negotiation through correspondence.
Why Choose Us?
Roundtable meetings can be an extremely positive way of focusing everyone's mind on the issues in dispute and illustrate a genuine attempt by all parties to try and find a solution. This essentially empowers those engaging within the roundtable meeting as opposed to having a third party (such as a judge or arbitrator) making decisions for them which can psychologically be significantly disempowering and potentially result in neither party remaining happy with the outcome.
As our Family Solicitors are Resolution members, we adopt the Resolution Code of Practice. This means that we aim to help you find cooperative and practical solutions.
Our Solicitors bring a unique mix of having significant Family Law experience, Court advocacy representation experience and being accredited mediators and fully accredited Collaborative lawyers. This means we can bring full complement of the range of skills to any roundtable meeting required for any participant desiring to achieve a cooperative and cost-effective resolution with the benefit of legal representation throughout.
For more information or to instruct us for your round table meeting, please complete this short form and a member of the team will be in touch with you shortly.
