Career opportunities

by Joanne Law | Mon Dec 2018 | Dispute Resolution Job Opportunities, Funding Opportunities, Members, Working as a mediator

There are a range of career opportunities open to qualified mediators. They approach or approaches you take will depend on your personal goals, experience and attitude to work.

Option One: Working for someone else

There are a number of different services that employ people how need dispute resolution qualifications.

Family Dispute Resolution Services – they will require you to have or be completing qualifications to become FDR Accredited.
Community Mediation Service – these may offer FDR or more general mediation requiring NMAS Accreditation.
Ombudsman services – require people with dispute resolution skills
Court mediation services – require NMAS Accredited Mediators
Private mediation business – may employ or contract mediators
Mediator / dispute resolution role – larger businesses have dispute resolution roles within a business or organisation. These may be dedicated roles or as part of another role.
Employee Assistance Programs – many employee assistance programs now offer dispute resolution as well as counselling.

Option Two: Working for yourself

Contracting to one of the types of organisations above
Running your own Family Dispute Resolution Practice
Working with others to run a FDR or Mediation business
Providing contract mediation services to organisations
Dispute resolution consulting and training

Interact Support

Interact Support was established by a group of Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners and Family Lawyers including Mediation Institute Directors Joanne Law and Paul Kenna. It’s mission is to prevent family violence by helping people who have issues and disputes to resolve them before they escalate into violence.

The main services it provides are information (Interact Family Law Options Consultations), family dispute resolution by video mediation or referral to independent FDRP’s and legal advice and strategy sessions by referral to family lawyers. The not-for-profit provides internship opportunities for Mediation Institute students and the potential for ongoing contract work depending on demand.

Work Placement

Mediation Institute encourages students to make use of work placement opportunities to establish networks, gain experience and prepare a pathway to paid employment / work opportunities as a mediator.

Jobs Directory

Mediation Institute scans the job ads for mediation related jobs as well as posts information about panels and other opportunities for dispute resolution practitioners for the benefit of members.

You can find the Job’s Board Archive under the News and Event’s Menu on any page on the website. The expired jobs there will give an indication of some to the roles available.

https://www.mediationinstitute.edu.au/job-archive/

Mediators Resume

by Joanne Law | Sat Aug 2018 | Dispute Resolution Job Opportunities, Marketing mediation services, Members, Working as a mediator

Do you have a Mediators Resume?

This will be of interest for any of our members who are looking for a job, looking for private work as a mediator or wanting to list on one of our directories.

A Resume is a summary of your skills, qualifications, accreditations and achievements and provides a quick way for someone who is considering working with you to see what your skills are.

Job Hunting

Having an attractive CV is an important part of standing out if you are searching for a job. Yes it should be about your skills, qualifications and passion for your work but the reality is that the initial stage of any recruitment process is culling the applications for most employers. A scrappy, poorly formatted CV might be all it takes for you to end up in the reject pile.

Mediation Work

One thing that still surprises me is the number of mediators who don’t have a Mediators Resume. The resume should include your qualifications, accreditations, contact information and showcase either your experience as a mediator or if you don’t have much experience yet your background experience and qualifications.

Don’t leave home without it! You never know when you will be speaking with someone who knows someone who needs help with dispute resolution. If you have handy your one page resume it is a lot more effective than handing over a business card, especially if it has a bit of personality and looks great.

Resume Making Tools

Novoresume

I’ve just found an interesting tool that is easy to use and has a free version and pretty low cost paid version. That’s what prompted this post along with conversations with mediators who don’t have a mediators CV.

The tool is called Novoresume – Here is the link. https://novoresume.com/

We are not associated with them in any way and I just found it this morning. I’ve created a resume. Using the free version I made something that I think it looks pretty good. What do you think? Joanne’s Resume (this link will download it so look where ever downloads go on the browser you use.)

Microsoft Office

The office suite has some great free templates available. If you don’t have the latest version of office get in touch as we can provide our member and students with free access to the latest version of the Microsoft tools through our Office 365 Subscription.

What other tools do you love?

If you use a different tool that you recommend let us know and we’ll update this post.

Jobs

Remember to keep an eye on our Jobs Archive. You can get to it from a link on the menu or click here – Job Archive

Return to the home page

Marketing your Mediation Practice

by Joanne Law | Tue Jul 2018 | Members, Webinar Recordings, Working as a mediator

Contact Natalie

Marriage Amendments (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017

by miadmin | Mon Dec 2017 | Working as a mediator

Marriage Amendments (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Act 2017 is the name of the legislation that gives effect to the same sex marriage arrangements in Australia.

The marriage equality changes to legislation in Australia regarding same sex marriage came into effect on the 8th December 2017.

The ACT has made changes that Family Dispute Resolution Practitioners and NMAS Mediators who are working with couples and families have to be aware of.

Rather than being a new piece of legislation it basically changes definitions of marriage and related meanings in a number of pieces of legislation which are listed below. The major changes are to the Marriage Act 1961.

Marriage Act 1961

The legislation makes changes to the Marriage Act 1961 in the objectives of the ACT. It now reads.

2A Objects of this Act

It is an object of this Act [Marriage Act 1961] to create a legal framework:

(a) to allow civil celebrants to solemnise marriage, understood as the union of 2 people to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life; and

(b) to allow ministers of religion to solemnise marriage, respecting the doctrines, tenets and beliefs of their religion, the views of their religious community or their own religious beliefs; and

The have very neatly changed the definition to avoid any ambiguity.

3 Subsection 5(1) (definition of marriage)

Omit “a man and a woman”, substitute “2 people”.

23 Grounds on which marriages are void

Now instead of not being able to marry your brother or sister [Paragraph 21 (2) (b)] or any decedent or ancestor including an adopted parent or child you can’t marry a blood related sibling, ancestor or descendant.

Subdivision D – Religious Marriage Celebrants

A new subdivision of the Act now allows marriage celebrants to register are Religious Marriage Celebrants to allow them to decline to marry people who’s relationship is not condoned by their particular faith.

Read 39DA to 39DE if this is of interest to you.

47 Ministers of religion may refuse to solemnise marriages

Section 47 sets out the terms that relate to Ministers of Religion [47] and Religious Marriage Celebrants [47a] may refuse to solemnise a marriage based on religious beliefs.

Refusing to solemnise a marriage on the basis of religious beliefs etc.

(3) A minister of religion may refuse to solemnise a marriage despite anything in this Part, if any of the following applies:

(a) the refusal conforms to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of the religion of the minister’s religious body or religious organisation;

(b) the refusal is necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion;

Grounds for refusal not limited by this section

(4) This section does not limit the grounds on which a minister of religion may refuse to solemnise a marriage.

47A Religious marriage celebrants may refuse to solemnise marriages

(1) A religious marriage celebrant may refuse to solemnise a marriage despite anything in this Part, if the celebrant’s religious beliefs do not allow the celebrant to solemnise the marriage.

Grounds for refusal not limited by this section

(2) This section does not limit the grounds on which a religious marriage celebrant may refuse to solemnise a marriage.

47B Bodies established for religious purposes may refuse to make facilities available or provide goods or services

(1) A body established for religious purposes may refuse to make a facility available, or to provide goods or services, for the purposes of the solemnisation of a marriage, or for purposes reasonably incidental to the solemnisation of a marriage, if the refusal:

(a) conforms to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of the religion of the body; or

(b) is necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion.

(2) Subsection (1) applies to facilities made available, and goods and services provided, whether for payment or not.

(3) This section does not limit the grounds on which a body established for religious purposes may refuse to make a facility available, or to provide goods or services, for the purposes of the solemnisation of a marriage, or for purposes reasonably incidental to the solemnisation of a marriage.

(4) To avoid doubt, a reference to a body established for religious purposes has the same meaning in this section as it has in section 37 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1), a purpose is reasonably incidental to the solemnisation of marriage if it is intrinsic to, or directly associated with, the solemnisation of the marriage.

Family Law Act 1975 amendments

The Family Law Act 1975 has various amendments to the language changing

“a man and a woman” to “2 people”
“the husband or the wife” to “a party to the marriage”
“the husband and the wife” to “both parties to the marriage”
“husband or wife” to “husband, wife, spouse”

Western Australia

The legislation and recognition of same sex marriages means that separating couples in WA who were previously regarded as de facto may now be regarded as married if they had married overseas in a jurisdiction allowing marriage equality.

This may impact entitlements with regards to financial settlements, especially in terms of Superannuation.

Legislation that has changes to the definition of spouses and potentially other amendments.

Marriage Act 1961
Sex Discrimination Act 1984
Acts Interpretation Act 1901
Defence Force Discipline Appeals Act 1955
Defence (Visiting Forces) Act 1963
Australian Defence Force Cover Act 2015
Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Act 1973
Evidence Act 1995
Family Law Act 1975
Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988
Maintenance Orders (Commonwealth Officers) Act 1966
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
Federal Circuit Court of Australia Act 1999
Governor‑General Act 1974
Judges’ Pensions Act 1968
Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act 1948
Superannuation Act 1976
Migration Act 1958
Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation (Defence‑related Claims) Act 1988
Family Court Act 1997 (WA)

Recommendations for Members

We recommend that you review the following documents to ensure that the language is inclusive and in line with legislation regarding marriage equality.

Client Intake Forms
Client Information documents
Agreement to Mediate (FDR)
Parenting Plan tools and templates
Property settlement tools and templates
Marketing Material

Casual Conciliator Roles Melbourne (Department of Justice and Regulation)

by Joanne Law | Thu Feb 2017 | Dispute Resolution Job Opportunities, Members, Working as a mediator

Conciliators

This job was advertised on https://jobs.careers.vic.gov.au/jobs/VG-CONCIL

Position Details

Be a part of a new and dynamic business unit and play a key role in Conciliation

$49.66 per hour plus superannuation

Multiple opportunities exist for a Conciliators on a casual basis within the Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria (DBDRV).

Functions of the DBDRV include assessment of referrals, technical building assessments, conciliation of disputes, Records of Agreement and Dispute Resolution Orders and compliance investigations.

Reporting to either the Conciliation Manager or the Client Services Manager, the Conciliator panel member will work in conjunction with DBDRV counterparts to facilitate dispute resolution under the Act.

Based on theoretical knowledge and practical expertise this role will undertake an assessment and analysis of disputes and diagnose dispute resolution requirements. This role will also be required to provide specialist advice on rights and obligations to parties of a dispute.

As our ideal candidate, you will be required to demonstrate:

Ideally a working knowledge of relevant legislation and Acts including but not limited to the Building Legislation Amendment (Consumer Protection) Bill 2015;
National Mediator Accreditation and conciliation experience is desirable;
Demonstrated ability to provide expert advice
Experience in dispute resolution techniques, including in the assessment of disputes, case management, and facilitative settlement.

For more information on the accountabilities and key selection criteria for the role please refer to the position description attached.

How to apply

Please click the Apply button at the bottom of this advertisement. Applications should include a resume and covering letter. Attachments can be uploaded in .doc, .docx, .pdf, .txt or .rtf formats.

Please note: When submitting your application online, there will be questions pertaining to a number of the position’s Key Selection Criteria to which you are required to respond.

About the Department

The Department of Justice and Regulation delivers high quality services to Victorians and supports a safe, just, innovative and thriving Victoria.

We provide professional, value for money services that are driven by our values: working together, making it happen, respecting other people, serving the community and acting with integrity.

Through our commitment to diversity and equality, we are actively engaged in promoting and maintaining a safe and inclusive work environment where all employees are respected, valued and supported.

Our employees are key to our success, and bring new and creative responses to issues and challenges we face in our work and the delivery of quality services to the Victorian community. We proactively seek to employ people of any gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, with a disability, and varied cultural backgrounds. In addition, we have a firm commitment to increase participation of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people across our workforce.

If a career that can give you the opportunity to contribute to a safe and just Victoria appeals to you, we look forward to receiving your application.

Dispute Resolution Officer – applications closing 5.2.17

by miadmin | Wed Feb 2017 | Dispute Resolution Job Opportunities, Members, Working as a mediator

Job Overview

VPS Careers HUB – Department of Justice and Regulation

Dispute Resolution Officer