MIAM Exemptions: When You Do Not Need to Attend

MIAM Exemptions Overview

Before you can apply to the family court for most orders about children or finances, you must attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM). A MIAM exemption is a specific, defined circumstance in which that requirement does not apply to you.

The exemptions are set out in rule 3.8 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010. They are not a matter of preference or convenience. You cannot be exempt simply because you think mediation will not work, because the other person is difficult, or because you would rather go straight to court.

Since 29 April 2024, claiming an exemption is no longer a tick-box exercise. The court can and does examine whether an exemption was validly claimed, and it may adjourn proceedings and direct you to attend a MIAM if it decides the claim does not hold. Several grounds that existed before that date were abolished.

What Changed on 29 April 2024

The Family Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2023 narrowed the exemptions considerably. If you are reading older guidance, or an article written before this date, it may tell you that you qualify when you no longer do.

The following grounds were removed:

• You do not have contact details for the other person. This is no longer a MIAM exemption.
• The other person lives outside England and Wales. No longer an exemption.
• The other person is in prison. No longer an exemption in itself. A separate ground exists where you are the one in custody. See below.

The rules also removed the former “mediator’s exemption”, under which a mediator could certify that mediation was unsuitable without the applicant claiming a ground themselves.

Alongside these changes, the court now expects parties to set out their views on non-court dispute resolution using form FM5, and it may take a party’s unreasonable refusal to engage into account when deciding costs.

1. Domestic Abuse

You are exempt if there is evidence of domestic abuse between you and the other person. Since 2024 the rules use the definition in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which covers physical and sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse, and psychological or emotional abuse. It applies to a single incident or a course of conduct.

You must provide evidence of a kind specified in Practice Direction 3A. Accepted evidence includes:

• An arrest, caution, charge or conviction for a domestic abuse offence
• A domestic abuse protection notice or order, or a protective injunction
• An undertaking given under the Family Law Act 1996
• A finding of fact made by a court
• A letter from a health professional, or an expert report
• A letter from a domestic abuse support organisation, a refuge, an IDVA or an ISVA
• A letter from a local authority, housing association, or a MARAC
• Evidence of financial or economic abuse

This is not the complete list. Practice Direction 3A sets out the full range.

2. Child Protection

You are exempt if a child who would be the subject of the application is currently the subject of enquiries by a local authority under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, or is the subject of a child protection plan.

3. Urgency

You are exempt if the application needs to be made urgently. The rules define what counts. There must be a risk to the life, liberty or physical safety of you, your family, or your home; or a delay caused by attending a MIAM would cause:

• a risk of harm to a child;
• a risk of unlawful removal of a child from the United Kingdom, or unlawful retention of a child who is currently outside England and Wales;
• a significant risk of a miscarriage of justice;
• significant financial hardship to you; or
• irretrievable problems in dealing with the dispute, including the irretrievable loss of significant evidence.

There is also a ground where there is a significant risk that, in the time needed to arrange and attend a MIAM, proceedings about the dispute would be started in another country.

Inconvenience, frustration, or simply wanting matters resolved quickly do not meet this test.

4. You Have Already Attended a MIAM or Another Non-Court Process

You are exempt if, in the four months before making your application, you attended a MIAM, or attended a non-court dispute resolution process, relating to the same or substantially the same dispute.

Where you attended a non-court dispute resolution process rather than a MIAM, you must provide evidence of that attendance in the form specified in Practice Direction 3A.

There is a related ground where you are applying within existing proceedings and you attended a MIAM before starting those proceedings.

5. You Are in Prison, or Subject to Bail or Licence Conditions

You are exempt if you cannot attend a MIAM because you are in prison or otherwise lawfully detained, or because you are subject to bail conditions or licence requirements that prohibit contact with the other person.

Note carefully that this ground is about your own circumstances. Before 29 April 2024 there was an exemption where the other person was in prison. That ground no longer exists.

6. Disability or Other Inability to Attend

You are exempt if you have a disability or other inability that would prevent you attending a MIAM in person, unless a mediator can offer appropriate facilities, and:

• you cannot attend a MIAM online or by video-link, and you explain to the court why; and
• you have contacted every authorised family mediator with an office within fifteen miles of your home (or five of them, if there are five or more), and all have said they cannot provide those facilities; and
• you give the court their names, addresses, contact details, and the dates you contacted them.

7. No Authorised Mediator Is Available

Two related grounds cover the practical unavailability of a mediator.

You are exempt if you cannot attend a MIAM online or by video-link, and you have contacted every authorised family mediator with an office within fifteen miles of your home (or five, if there are five or more), and none can offer a MIAM within fifteen business days.

You are also exempt if you cannot attend a MIAM online or by video-link and there is no authorised family mediator with an office within fifteen miles of your home. You must explain to the court why the exemption applies.

In practice this ground rarely assists people who are able to attend by video call, because BookMIAM and other providers conduct MIAMs online across England and Wales.

8. Bankruptcy

You are exempt if you are bankrupt and the application is for a financial remedy. This ground does not apply to applications about children.

9. Other Grounds

• Applications made without notice to the other person.
• A child is one of the prospective parties to the application.

Separately, rule 3.6 of the Family Procedure Rules places certain proceedings outside the MIAM requirement altogether. These include applications for a consent order, and applications to enforce an order made in financial remedy proceedings. If you and the other person have already reached agreement and you are asking the court to approve it, you are not required to attend a MIAM.

Not Sure If You Are Exempt?

Exemptions are narrower than most people expect, and the court will look behind a claim that does not hold. Claiming one that does not apply can mean your application is adjourned and you are directed to attend a MIAM anyway, losing weeks.

If you are not certain, the safest course is to book a MIAM. Your mediator will assess your circumstances, and if an exemption does apply, will sign the relevant section of your C100 or Form A at no additional cost.

This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Only a mediator registered with the Family Mediation Council can sign your court form, and only the court can decide whether an exemption has been validly claimed. The rules are summarised here in plain English; the authoritative text is rule 3.8 of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and Practice Direction 3A.

Last verified against the Family Procedure Rules on 9 July 2026. Sources: Family Procedure Rules 2010, rules 3.6 and 3.8; Practice Direction 3A; Family Procedure (Amendment No. 2) Rules 2023 (SI 2023/1324), in force 29 April 2024.

Related Guides

• What Is a MIAM?
• MIAM Certificate
• Online MIAM
• C100 Form Guide
• Child Arrangements
• How Mediation Works
• Pricing

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