Estate Mediation

Estate mediation is a method of resolving disputes between people who disagree about issues such as Wills and estates, inheritances and decision-making concerning vulnerable family members.

It is important to choose a skilled and experienced mediator who has in-depth knowledge of Estate Law so that you can ensure your mediator can provide meaningful assistance to resolving the dispute. As both accredited mediators and estate and family lawyers, we offer the knowledge, experience and skill needed to help our clients to arrive at creative, practical resolutions to the issues in dispute.

Benefits of Estate Mediation

Estate mediation is both a cost-effective and efficient way to resolve estate disputes, especially when compared to estate litigation. There are other benefits to mediation that can be of even greater value to you than time and money. Estate disputes can frequently destroy family relationships. As estate mediators, we will help you to find solutions to the resolve the dispute in a respectful and mutually acceptable way.

By providing an opportunity to have difficult discussions with all involved parties, family relationships can be preserved or repaired, and the lines of communication between family members can be improved.

As estate mediators we encourage respectful discussions to get to the root of the problems and narrow down the areas of conflict. We help to generate options for resolution, and we allow parties to maintain some control over the outcome of their dispute, by helping them to participate in creating mutually acceptable solutions.

The mediation process emphasizes respectful listening and encourages everyone to focus on finding practical solutions to the issues that need resolving.  When family members fight over an estate, family relationships are often destroyed forever.

• Attentive respectful listening: each party is asked to listen carefully to all other parties involved in the mediation to really try to understand the other parties’ goals, interests and perspective;
• Self-awareness: each party is asked to try to consider the impact of their words, tone of voice and body language on the other people involved in the mediation; and
• Intentional speaking: each party is encouraged to communicate in ways that are relevant to the discussion at hand and which serve to assist in resolving the conflict.

When family members fight over an estate, family relationships are often destroyed forever. Often the issues are compounded by misunderstandings, assumptions, suspicions and poor communication. Before going to court, consider estate mediation as a better way to find a solution to the conflict before it is too late.