Family dispute resolution and mediation

The section 60I certificate

You cannot file a parenting application without filing a certificate from an accredited family dispute resolution practitioner, or establishing that an exception applies. There are five types of certificate and they say quite different things.

• You attended and both of you made a genuine effort to resolve the dispute.
• You attended and one of you did not make a genuine effort.
• The other party did not attend, having refused or failed to attend.
• The practitioner decided it was not appropriate to conduct the process.
• The process started and the practitioner decided it was not appropriate to continue.

The certificate does not tell the court what was said. Family dispute resolution is confidential under section 10H and, with narrow exceptions, inadmissible under section 10J. What was discussed at mediation stays there.

A certificate is valid for 12 months. The court can also take into account the type of certificate when considering costs, which is a real incentive to turn up and participate properly.

When you do not have to attend

Section 60I(9) sets out the exceptions. The court can accept a parenting application without a certificate where:

1. The application is for consent orders, or is a response to an application by the other party.
2. There are reasonable grounds to believe there has been, or there is a risk of, child abuse or family violence by a party.
3. The application is urgent.
4. A party is unable to participate effectively, for example because of incapacity or physical remoteness.
5. There has been a contravention of an order made in the last 12 months in circumstances showing a serious disregard for the order.

The exceptions are not a shortcut. If you file relying on one, you will need to explain the basis for it in an affidavit, and the court can order you to attend dispute resolution anyway. But where family violence is genuinely present, do not let a mediation requirement delay an urgent application. See domestic violence and protection orders.

What actually happens at a mediation

A family dispute resolution practitioner meets each of you separately first, to assess whether the process is appropriate and safe. That intake stage screens for family violence, power imbalance and capacity. If it is not appropriate, the practitioner issues a certificate saying so.

The joint session may be in the same room, in separate rooms with the practitioner moving between them, or by video. Shuttle mediation is standard where there is a history of violence or where being in the room together would stop anything useful happening.

The practitioner does not decide anything. They have no power to impose an outcome and they do not give legal advice. Their job is to run a structured conversation that produces workable arrangements.

How to make it work

• Get legal advice before you go, so you know the realistic range. Mediating without knowing the range is negotiating blind.
• Bring your disclosure. A property mediation without financial documents is a scheduling exercise.
• Prepare a proposal, not a list of grievances. The practitioner cannot rule on the past.
• Decide in advance what you will not agree to, and why.
• If you reach agreement, document it properly afterwards through consent orders or a financial agreement. An unsigned heads of agreement is not an outcome.

Property disputes and the pre-action procedures

Section 60I applies to parenting, not property. Property matters are subject to the pre-action procedures in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Rules, which require you to make a genuine effort to resolve the dispute before filing, exchange a notice of intention to claim, provide disclosure, and consider dispute resolution.

Options include a private mediation with a solicitor or barrister mediator, a conciliation conference conducted by a court registrar once proceedings are on foot, arbitration for financial matters, and lawyer-assisted negotiation.

The duty of disclosure now sits in the Act itself following the 10 June 2025 amendments, and your lawyer has to explain it to you. Non-disclosure is the most common reason a property mediation fails, and the most common reason a settlement gets set aside afterwards.

Costs consequences follow a party who unreasonably refuses to participate. Under section 117 the general rule is that each party bears their own costs, but the court can order otherwise, and conduct in the lead up to litigation is expressly relevant.