>>Do you know how long I might have to wait for a new hearing?
The courts were not exactly quick before this Covid business. Post Covid they move at a glacial pace. It is impossible to be sure because these things vary from court to court but I think you are looking at a delay of at least four months.
For what it is worth, it is hardly ever worth adjourning an FDA for mediation. The two are not mutually exclusive. They could have continued in parallel. Knowledge that the court proceedings were ongoing and that they had a determinate time table would almost certainly have concentrated minds at mediation. What is more likely to happen is that one side was benefiting from the status quo and therefore simply used mediation to spin things out by several months. Also, an FDR is judge led mediation so there would have been no loss in continuing the court process.
>>We have now had financial disclosure during the mediation sessions. Does that mean we would have to go back to the FDA or could we treat this as an FDR?
You could both agree to use the FDA as an FDR but in order to do that you would both have to comply with the court's directions for the FDA such as exchange of Forms E. That is because if a judge is going to act as a mediator at an FDR he/she will need all the paperwork completed in advance. Different mediators use different forms of disclosure. The courts use a standardised form of disclosure. The point about the latter is that it saves the court's time because the judge knows where to look for what information. It is not practical to expect judges to wade through non standard forms of disclosure because of the additional time involved and because it is much easier to overlook a point which may have been buried away in some unexpected place.
