Agreements

Do you need a solicitor after mediation?

A common question after mediation is whether you still need a solicitor. Mediation is designed to help you reach agreement without lawyers fighting your corner, so it can feel like a step backwards to involve one at the end. In fact, a solicitor plays a specific and useful role after mediation, and it is different from the role people usually imagine.

This guide explains what a solicitor does after mediation, why independent legal advice is recommended, and how a memorandum of understanding becomes a draft consent order. This is general information, not legal advice. For the full route from agreement to court, see our guide to the memorandum of understanding.

Why involve a solicitor at all?

The mediator’s job is to stay impartial and help you both reach your own decisions. That impartiality is a strength, but it has a limit: a mediator cannot tell either of you whether the agreement is a good deal for you personally. That is exactly what a solicitor can do. They act for one person and can advise on whether the agreement is fair and how it compares with what a court might order.

So the two roles fit together rather than compete. Mediation gets you to an agreement. A solicitor helps you understand it and makes it binding. Our page on what a family mediator does explains the boundaries of the mediator’s role in more detail.

What does a solicitor do after mediation?

After mediation, a solicitor typically does three things. Each is a discrete piece of work, which is why many firms offer it at a fixed fee rather than an open-ended hourly rate.

The order they draft is the consent order, and the process of getting it approved is set out in our guide on making a mediation agreement legally binding. The financial detail behind it comes straight from your financial mediation, so there is no need to reopen the numbers.

Step by step: from memorandum to sealed order

It can help to see how the solicitor’s work fits into the wider process. Assuming you have finished mediation and have your memorandum of understanding, the sequence usually runs like this.

Nobody usually attends a hearing. The solicitor’s job is to make sure the paperwork is right and the order does what you both intended.

Why independent legal advice matters before you sign

Before you sign a consent order, it is recommended that each of you takes your own independent legal advice. This is not a formality. It means you both fully understand what the order says, what you are giving up, and what you are securing. A solicitor can spot anything that might cause a problem later, such as a claim that has not been properly dealt with or a clause that does not do what you think it does.

Taking advice also protects the agreement itself. An order made where both people understood it and entered it freely is far less likely to be challenged down the line. Many people find the advice simply confirms what they agreed, which is reassuring in its own right.

What independent legal advice covers

When a solicitor advises you on a mediated agreement, they are looking at your position specifically. Typically they will check:

• Whether the split of property, savings and pensions is fair for you, and how it compares with a likely court outcome
• Whether your future needs, especially housing and income, are met
• Whether a clean break is right for you, or whether maintenance should continue
• Whether all claims, including pensions and inheritance, are properly dealt with
• Whether the wording of the order does what you intend and can be enforced

If you want to understand the financial groundwork behind all this, our guide to financial disclosure explains what should have been shared in mediation.

Do both of you need a solicitor?

It is recommended that each of you takes your own independent advice, because one solicitor cannot advise both of you: they can only act for one person. In practice, one solicitor usually drafts the consent order, and the other person takes their own separate advice on whether to agree to it. That keeps things efficient while making sure both of you are properly informed.

You are not obliged to use a solicitor at all, and some people complete a consent order themselves. But because the order is binding and hard to change later, taking advice is a sensible safeguard, particularly where there are pensions, property or a business involved.

How much does it cost?

Because the work after mediation is well defined, many solicitors offer it as a fixed fee rather than charging by the hour. A fixed-fee service to convert a memorandum of understanding into a draft consent order gives you certainty on cost. Separate from that, the court charges a fee to apply for the consent order itself.

It is always worth asking exactly what a fixed fee includes. Our guide to family court fees sets out the court side of the costs.

Questions to ask before you instruct a solicitor

A little groundwork makes the fixed-fee route smoother and avoids surprises. Before you instruct someone, it is worth asking:

• Is this a fixed fee, and exactly what does it include: advice, drafting, Form A, the D81 and any questions from the court?
• Does the fee assume we already have a memorandum of understanding, or does it include more work if we do not?
• Who will do the work, and how quickly can you turn the draft order around?
• Are pensions, a business or a property transfer included, or charged separately?
• What happens, and what does it cost, if the judge asks a question about the order?

Clear answers up front mean you know what you are paying for, and they help the solicitor scope the work accurately. If your agreement is simple and your disclosure was thorough in mediation, most of this is quick and predictable.

What happens once the order is sealed

When the judge seals the consent order, your agreement becomes legally binding and enforceable. The solicitor will usually send you a sealed copy to keep. Some parts then need to be put into effect: a pension sharing order goes to the pension provider, a property transfer is completed and registered, and any lump sum is paid over on the agreed date. Keeping the sealed order safe matters, because it is the document you would rely on if anything ever needed enforcing later.

From that point, the finances between you are settled on the terms in the order. If your circumstances change dramatically, some elements such as ongoing maintenance can be revisited, but a clean break is designed to be final. Our guide on what happens if an agreement breaks down explains the limited routes for changing or enforcing an order later, and our overview of consent orders sets out what the sealed order actually contains.

It is worth keeping the sealed order, the memorandum of understanding and your disclosure together in one place. If a question ever arises years later, having the full picture to hand makes it far easier to show what was agreed and why.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Assuming mediation and a memorandum of understanding are the end of the process, when the order still needs drafting and sealing.
• Trying to use one solicitor to advise both of you, which is not allowed.
• Not asking what a fixed fee actually covers, then facing extra charges later.
• Skipping advice on a binding order that is hard to change, especially where pensions are involved.
• Delaying, so the agreement goes stale and figures such as house or pension values need updating.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. The Law Society, Finding a solicitor and legal advice, lawsociety.org.uk. Accessed 9 July 2026.
2. Family Mediation Council, Code of Practice, familymediationcouncil.org.uk. Accessed 9 July 2026.
3. GOV.UK, Money and property when you divorce or separate: apply for a consent order, gov.uk. Accessed 9 July 2026.
4. GOV.UK, Family court fees (EX50), gov.uk. Accessed 9 July 2026.