Mediationguide.co.uk goes live with a free Text Tone-Checker that cools down co-parenting messages, alongside family mediation guides, stats and news.
Neither parent had a solicitor in 49 per cent of private family law cases resolved between January and March 2026, a rise of three percentage points on the year before, Ministry of Justice figures show. Just 13 per cent of cases saw both sides represented. With a children’s case now taking 35 weeks on average to reach a final order, tens of thousands of separated parents are running their own cases while still having to message one another about handovers, money and the school run, and those messages can tip a small disagreement into a full blown dispute.
Mediationguide.co.uk, a free family mediation information and news site launched this month, is built for precisely that situation. Its new tool, the Text Tone-Checker, reads a draft message to an ex-partner and gives it a temperature: clear, warm or hot. It picks out the phrases that spark rows, from “you always” to sarcasm dressed up as politeness, explains why each one backfires, and suggests three calmer rewrites, one neutral and factual, one warmer, one very brief. A second mode does the opposite: paste in a heated message you have been sent and it pulls out the parts worth answering, the dates, the money, the questions, from the bait that is better ignored, then sets up a calm frame for your reply.
Chris Yaffes, FMC-accredited family mediator (FMC URN 0961A), who reviews every guide on the site, said:
“Most separating couples I meet do not want a fight, they want a decision they can live with and a way to keep talking to their ex about the children. Mediation gives them both, usually in two to four sessions, at a fraction of what contested court costs in money and in stress.”
Alongside the tone checker, the site offers six free interactive tools, among them a co-parenting schedule builder and a mediation cost calculator, more than a hundred plain-English guides to family mediation, MIAMs, child arrangements and divorce finances, and a statistics section kept up to date from Ministry of Justice, Cafcass and Legal Aid Agency data.
Under the government’s Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, which has helped more than 54,000 parents since 2021, 77 per cent of mediated cases reached whole or partial agreement. The site works as an independent resource, helping separating couples and parents understand more about family mediation, how to communicate better with one another and where legal aid and voucher schemes can help keep costs down.
Jess Knauf, Director of Client Strategy at Mediate UK, who writes the site’s news coverage, said:
“Half of parents in the family courts now have no lawyer, so clear, accurate, free information is not a nice to have, it is the difference between a manageable separation and a chaotic one. That is why everything on this site is free, sourced and checked, with no email walls.”
The Text Tone-Checker is available now, free and with no sign-up, at mediationguide.co.uk/tools/text-tone-checker.
Jess Knauf
Family Legal Ltd
