Family Law and Divorce Law Mediation Cape Town
Bertus Preller is the founder of Family Law Mediators Cape Town (FMS). He is an experienced Mediator and member of the South African Association of Mediators (SAAM) and a Family and Divorce Law Attorney at Maurice Phillips Wisenberg in Cape Town.
Family Law Mediation is a peaceful, logical, effective and responsible alternative to divorce litigation. It is the modern, intelligent "way to go", and the benefits are plain for all to see. It is a form of dispute resolution and a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties with concrete effects.
Family Law Mediation is private and confidential, participation is typically voluntary and the mediator acts as a neutral third party and facilitates rather than directs the process.
Family Law Mediation take less time which means expending less money on hourly fees and costs.
The benefits of mediation are:
- Cost—The mediation process generally takes much less time than moving a case through standard legal channels.
- Confidentiality—While court hearings are public, mediation remains strictly confidential.
- Control—Mediation increases the control the parties have over the resolution.
Mediation is not for everyone. Mediation may not result in a settlement that is meaningful if there is a power imbalance between the parties. It is not usually appropriate where there has been abuse, and it may not work in situations where one (or both) of the parties is unprepared to compromise. That said, many people enter the process with very entrenched positions and still reach a compromise.
Bertus Preller is an accredited mediator at SAAM is a non-profit multidisciplinary professional organization, established in 1988. It is a regulatory body for its members and is involved in mediation through the promotion of the profession, the education and training of its members, and the facilitation of disputes.
"Mediation can produce remarkable results in the most unpropitious of circumstances, especially when conducted by one of the several hundred people in this country who have been trained in the process. Unlike settlement negotiations between legal advisers, in themselves frequently fruitful, the process is conducted by an independent expert who can, under conditions of the strictest confidentiality, isolate underlying interests, use the information to identify common ground and, by drawing on his or her own legal and other knowledge, sensitively encourage an evaluation of the prospects of success in the litigation and an appreciation of the costs and practical consequences of continued litigation, particularly if the case is a loser. Brassey AJ in the case of Brownlee v Brownlee: Case number: 2008/25274".
