What Is a MIAM Certificate and How Do You Get One?

A MIAM certificate is a signed form from an authorised family mediator confirming that you attended a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting. You need one before filing most private law family court applications in England and Wales, and you get it by booking a meeting with a mediator listed on the Family Mediation Council register. The certificate does not say you agreed to mediate. It records that a qualified mediator assessed your dispute and explained the options for resolving it outside court.¹

When You Need One

Two broad categories of application require a MIAM. The first is private law children proceedings, mainly applications for child arrangements orders covering where a child lives and how much time they spend with each parent. The second is financial remedy applications after divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership, such as claims for periodical payments or lump sum orders.²

The duty to attend sits with the applicant. If you are starting the case, you must either file a signed certificate or claim a valid exemption on the application form. Without one or the other, the court will not issue your case. Respondents are expected to attend as well, either jointly with the applicant or in a separate meeting with the same mediator. A respondent who refuses faces a different consequence: the court can take that refusal into account when deciding who pays the legal costs.²

What Happens at the Meeting

The MIAM itself is an assessment, not a mediation session. The mediator will go through your situation, explain how mediation works, and discuss other ways you might reach an agreement without court. They will also ask for contact details for the other party so they can check whether a joint session is possible.³

Three outcomes are realistic. The mediator may decide mediation is suitable and you can book full sessions. They may assess it as unsuitable because of safety concerns, a power imbalance, or the nature of the dispute. Or the other party may simply refuse to engage. In any of these cases, the mediator completes and signs the MIAM section of your court form. That signed form is your certificate, and it works for your application whatever the outcome.²

The certificate is valid for four calendar months from the date of the meeting. If you miss that window, you have to attend a fresh MIAM.

How to Get One

Only mediators listed on the Family Mediation Council register and authorised to sign court forms can issue a valid MIAM certificate. You can search the register by location on the Council’s website.⁴ When you book, tell the mediator which type of application you plan to make. The certificate is completed on the relevant court form itself: the C100 for children proceedings, Form A for financial remedy claims.

After the meeting, the mediator fills in and signs the MIAM section of the form. Keep the original and make copies before you file.

Cost and the Voucher Scheme

If you qualify for legal aid, a MIAM is free when you use a mediator who does legal aid work. Otherwise expect to pay around £120 per person.⁵

If you decide to go on to full mediation after the MIAM and your case involves a child, the government’s Family Mediation Voucher Scheme offers a one-off contribution of up to £500 toward mediation costs. The voucher covers children disputes and financial matters linked to a children dispute. It does not cover standalone financial remedy cases. You can still qualify even if one party is on legal aid, in which case the other party uses the voucher toward their share.⁵

When You Can Skip the MIAM

Rule 3.8 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 lists the circumstances where you can apply to court without attending a MIAM first.⁶ You claim an exemption by ticking the relevant box on the application form. The court will test the claim at the gatekeeping stage in children cases or at the first hearing in financial cases, and if it is not properly made out, a judge can adjourn and direct you to attend a MIAM anyway.²

Domestic Abuse

This is the most commonly claimed exemption, and it carries detailed evidence requirements. Practice Direction 3A accepts, among other things, a relevant arrest, caution, or conviction, a protective injunction, a domestic abuse protection notice, a finding of fact in earlier proceedings, letters from health professionals confirming injuries consistent with abuse, referrals to specialist services, or confirmation from an independent domestic abuse adviser or a multi-agency risk assessment conference.² Gather the evidence before you file; a bare reference to abuse without documentation will not survive the gatekeeping check.

Child Protection

You are exempt if a child in the application, or another child in the same household, is currently the subject of local authority enquiries under Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 or is on a child protection plan.⁶

Urgency

Several urgency grounds qualify. The broadest is a risk to the life, liberty, or physical safety of you or your family. Also included are situations where delay would risk harm to a child, risk the unlawful removal of a child from the UK, cause significant financial hardship, create a significant risk of a miscarriage of justice, or lead to the irretrievable loss of important evidence.⁶ These exemptions are for genuine emergencies. A judge who sees one used to avoid a meeting that could reasonably have taken place is unlikely to be sympathetic.

Previous MIAM or No Mediator Available

If you attended a MIAM within the previous four months about the same or a substantially similar dispute, you do not need another one. You may also be exempt if no authorised mediator has an office within fifteen miles of your home, or if the mediators within that range cannot offer a MIAM within fifteen business days.⁶

Filing the Certificate With Your Application

The signed MIAM section is part of your main application form, so filing it means filing the form itself: C100 for children proceedings, Form A for financial remedy claims. You can submit online through the MyHMCTS portal or by post to your regional family court centre.⁷

Court staff check that the certificate is within its four-month validity and signed by a qualified mediator. If it is missing, out of date, or incomplete, the application comes back to you. Once accepted, the court issues proceedings, assigns a case number, and serves the paperwork on the respondent. Processing times vary, so expect at least a couple of weeks before anything moves.

What Happens If You Skip It

Filing without a valid certificate or a properly claimed exemption does not kill your case automatically, but it causes real delay. If you claim an exemption, the court will issue proceedings and a judge reviews the claim at the first opportunity. If the judge finds the exemption was not valid, or that circumstances have changed so it no longer applies, the court can adjourn and direct you to attend a MIAM before anything else happens.² In children cases, where the first hearing is usually listed within a few weeks of issue, that kind of adjournment pushes your case back considerably.

Even once proceedings are underway, the court can direct parties to attend a MIAM or try mediation at any stage. Refusing to engage will not change the substantive outcome, but the court can take your conduct into account when deciding who pays the legal costs.² That cost risk alone is reason to attend, even if you doubt mediation will work.

1
Legislation.gov.uk. Children and Families Act 2014 Section 10
2
Justice UK. Practice Direction 3A – Family Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings (MIAMs) and Non-Court Dispute Resolution
3
GOV.UK. Making Child Arrangements if You Divorce or Separate – Mediation
4
Family Mediation Council. FMC Register Search
5
GOV.UK. Family Mediation Voucher Scheme
6
Legislation.gov.uk. The Family Procedure Rules 2010 – Rule 3.8
7
GOV.UK. MyHMCTS – How to Use Online Financial Remedy Services – Lodging an Application – Contested