Mediation vs court: what each route costs
Key facts
- A full course of family mediation typically costs each person a few hundred pounds up to around £1,500, depending on the case.
- Solicitor-led negotiation commonly reaches the mid thousands per person; a fully contested court case can run to five figures each.
- Court fees as of 13 July 2026: children application (C100) £270, contested financial order £321, consent order £62, divorce application £628.
- The £500 mediation voucher and legal aid can cut mediation costs further; no equivalent exists for contested litigation costs.
- Whichever route you take, a financial agreement is usually made binding by a consent order, so the £62 fee applies to both.
The honest answer to “should we mediate or go to court?” involves more than money, but money is usually where the difference shows first. The two routes are not close. Mediation is priced by the session and ends when you agree. Litigation is priced by the hour, runs to a court timetable you do not control, and continues until a judge decides or you settle anyway, often months in and thousands down.
This page puts realistic figures on each route: mediation, solicitor negotiation and contested proceedings. It sits within our wider guide to family mediation costs, and if you want the non-financial comparison, how the routes differ on time, control and outcomes, see mediation vs court.
What mediation typically costs
Mediation has three cost parts: the MIAM each of you attends (typically £100 to £150 per person), the joint sessions (typically £100 to £200 per person per session, lasting 60 to 90 minutes), and a document fee if agreement is reached and written up. The total therefore depends almost entirely on how many sessions you need, which our guide to session numbers covers in detail.
A children-only dispute settled in two or three sessions commonly costs each person £300 to £750 all in. A financial case with full disclosure and four or five sessions, plus the Memorandum of Understanding and Open Financial Statement at the end, typically lands between £800 and £1,500 per person. Very few mediated cases exceed that, because the process either produces agreement or ends.
Funding can shrink these numbers substantially. The £500 voucher applies to child arrangements cases regardless of income, and legal aid can cover one or both of you entirely if the means test is passed. Nothing comparable exists to subsidise contested litigation between separating couples.
What solicitor negotiation typically costs
The middle route is resolving matters through letters and negotiation between two firms of solicitors, without ever issuing court proceedings. It is far less expensive than a contested case, but hourly billing changes the arithmetic. Every letter your solicitor writes, reads or responds to is chargeable, and a negotiation that drifts across six months accumulates costs even when little is happening.
Totals in the mid thousands per person are common for a solicitor-negotiated financial settlement, and higher where disclosure is contested or offers go back and forth repeatedly. Solicitors also play a valuable role alongside mediation rather than instead of it: many people take a mediated proposal to a solicitor for advice before signing anything, which costs a fraction of full representation. We compare the two approaches properly in mediation vs solicitors.
What contested court proceedings cost
A fully contested case is the expensive end. Financial remedy proceedings involve a fixed sequence: issue, a first appointment, a financial dispute resolution hearing, and if still unresolved a final hearing, usually with counsel instructed and sometimes expert valuations of property, pensions or businesses. Children proceedings follow their own track with safeguarding checks and possible Cafcass reports. Representation through that whole sequence routinely reaches five figures per person, and high-conflict cases go well beyond.
Rather than repeat headline claims from law firm marketing, we collect the published research on what separation actually costs families, including litigated cases, on our cost of divorce data page. Delay compounds the money: contested cases measured in months or years also carry lost working days, repeated hearing preparation and interim uncertainty, which our family court delays page quantifies from the official statistics.
The court fees themselves
On top of legal costs, court applications carry fixed fees set by the Ministry of Justice. These rose on 13 July 2026. The figures below are as of 13 July 2026, from the family court fees list (EX50) and the July 2026 fees announcement.
| Application | Fee (as of 13 July 2026) | Who typically pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Divorce, dissolution or nullity application | £628 | Anyone divorcing, whichever route they take |
| Children application (C100, section 8 orders) | £270 | Court route only |
| Contested financial order (Form A on notice) | £321 | Court route only |
| Financial order by consent (consent order) | £62 | Both routes, to make a financial agreement binding |
The pattern is clear from the third column. A couple who reach agreement in mediation avoid the £270 children fee and the £321 contested financial fee entirely. The consent order fee of £62 applies either way, because a mediated financial agreement is normally made legally binding by a consent order, and couples who settle at the door of the court end up with the same order. The full fee list, including Help with Fees for people on low incomes, is on our family court fees page.
Most separated couples who litigate still end up settling before a final hearing. When that happens, the money spent preparing for trial bought the same kind of negotiated agreement mediation is designed to produce, at a large multiple of the price.
Putting the routes side by side
Bringing the strands together, here is what each route typically costs one person to resolve a financial and children dispute, before any funding help. These are ranges, not quotes: your own numbers depend on complexity, conflict level and how quickly agreement comes.
| Route | Typical cost per person | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Family mediation | A few hundred pounds to around £1,500 | Weeks to a few months |
| Solicitor negotiation | Commonly mid thousands | Several months |
| Contested court proceedings | Frequently five figures | A year or more is common |
To test the comparison against your own situation, our free mediation vs court calculator lets you enter session rates, likely session numbers and the relevant court fees, and shows the two totals side by side.
Why the gap is so large
The difference is structural, not a matter of mediators being cheap. In mediation you both pay one professional to help you reach one agreement, and the process stops the moment you get there. In litigation you each pay your own professionals to advance opposing positions, then pay again for barristers at hearings, and the timetable is set by court listing rather than by your progress. Preparation is duplicated on both sides, and every adjournment costs money. A hearing listed for ten o’clock still has to be prepared for in full even if it settles on the morning, and a case that adjourns because a report is late repeats much of that preparation months later at the same hourly rates.
There is also a difference in what the money buys. Mediated agreements are built by the people who must live with them, which is one reason so many hold. A judge’s order after a final hearing settles the dispute, but at a price, financial and otherwise, that most families would not choose if they saw the totals in advance. Court remains the right route in some situations, particularly where there is abuse or urgent risk, and when it is, funding routes and fee remission exist to help; our page on domestic abuse and mediation explains when mediation should not be attempted at all.
Frequently asked questions
How much cheaper is mediation than going to court?
A full course of mediation typically costs each person a few hundred pounds up to around £1,500, while a contested court case frequently reaches five figures per person once representation and hearings are included. The exact gap depends on your case, but mediation is usually the least expensive formal route by a wide margin.
Do I avoid all court fees if we mediate?
Most, but not quite all. Agreeing in mediation avoids the £270 children application fee and the £321 contested financial order fee. If you make a financial agreement legally binding, which is usually sensible, you still pay the £62 consent order fee, and a divorce application costs £628 whichever route you take, as of 13 July 2026.
Is going to court ever the cheaper option?
Rarely on money alone, but sometimes it is the right option. Where there is domestic abuse, urgent risk to a child, or one person simply refuses to engage, mediation may be unsuitable or impossible, and court provides protection and a decision. Fee remission and legal aid can reduce the cost in qualifying cases.
If mediation fails, is the money wasted?
Usually not entirely. Even unsuccessful mediation typically narrows the issues, completes much of the financial disclosure and clarifies what each person actually wants, all of which shortens and cheapens any court case that follows. Courts also expect to see that non-court options were considered before proceedings were issued.
Why do court cases cost so much more when the court fee is only a few hundred pounds?
The application fee is a small fraction of the real cost. Most of the money goes on solicitors preparing statements and disclosure, barristers representing you at each hearing, and expert reports on property, pensions or the children’s welfare, duplicated across both sides over months of proceedings.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Family court fees (EX50), verifies the family court fee categories for divorce, children and financial applications (accessed July 2026).
- GOV.UK, Court and tribunal fees updates from July 2026, verifies the fee increases effective 13 July 2026, including divorce to £628, children applications to £270 and financial orders to £321 (accessed July 2026).
- Family Mediation Council, About family mediation, verifies how the mediation process is structured and priced by session (accessed July 2026).
- GOV.UK, Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, verifies the £500 contribution available in child arrangements cases (accessed July 2026).
- MoneyHelper, Sorting out money during divorce, verifies the general cost structure of the routes for resolving finances on separation (accessed July 2026).