Why I Chose Family Mediation: Insights from a Former Magistrate (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Stuart Hanson and I'm a family mediator and in this video I'm going to discuss why I became a mediator. I started in law about 10 years ago and I started in immigration and during that time I volunteered as a family magistrate in the West Yorkshire Courts. During that time I saw many cases where I felt mediation would have been better. Now today mediation has been incorporated into the family law proceedings and for cases such as child contact mediation has to be considered and in the C100 form people will find that they will need to see a mediator before the courts accept the form. My experience was that court really is a last resort. I mean this is a point where nobody can speak to each other and that, you know, mediation or the communication routes have totally failed and this is really sad because at the end of the day, you know, those two people are the parents of a child and, you know, it cannot be denied that, you know, the tension between the people separating or who have separated when discussing about their children, it becomes very tense and it must have an impact on the children. Therefore, you know, I would always advise that mediation is the better route. Try and think about the child first because the proceedings in court is all about the child. In mediation it's child focused and it's not focused on the needs of the parents, it's focused on the needs of that child because that child really does need both parents in the majority of circumstances. Therefore, after many court cases I witnessed, mediation in a form took place in the courtroom and solutions were found and the solutions were found by the parents. That could have easily been done in mediation but it's this thought of going to court and going to win because I'm right. At the end of the day, I think it's what's right for the children and in many situations, you know, the parents would be asked the question, is he a bad father, is she a bad mother and very rarely did the parents say, oh, terrible. They often said, you know, they have a good relationship with a child. So really in those circumstances, the adults have to think about how they deal with their issues in communication. As I've said in videos before, mediation can be the first step to re-establishing communications because after a painful divorce or separation, having to deal with these issues, they're very difficult and what you're doing by going to court is by giving the responsibility of decision-making to a third party who doesn't know you, doesn't know your children and they're expected, as I was as a magistrate, to make decisions and then make them, you know, into a court order so that, you know, that both parents have to legally follow them. It would always be better that there's something called the no order rule where it would be where parents both spoke to one another and in a number of cases, in court cases, they managed to do that. They were given time and with their solicitors managed to find a solution. Mediation, of course, can also run alongside court proceedings and help narrow the differences because mediation may not come up with a complete solution but maybe a partial solution and then at least the parents, you know, have had some involvement in the decision-making and that it's not just somebody who you don't know making that decision on behalf of your family. That's the reason why I decided to move into family mediation so I can help families through a very difficult time and help them through the process of trying to find a solution that can work for everybody. I hope that explains my reasons for becoming a family mediator and I look forward to working with you and your family find a way forward at this difficult time. Thank you.