Sarah-Jane Riddell-Solicitor, Collaborative lawyer, mediator

Sarah is a collaborative family lawyer and accredited mediator with Family Law Partners in Brighton.  

Sarah works with clients in a way that is tailored to their needs, providing the best support possible to enable resolution of any issues with relative calm during what can often feel an overwhelming situation.

Sarah works as a solicitor, collaborative family lawyer and accredited family mediator with individuals and families who seek support in a variety of situations including divorce and separation or who wish to make agreements for living together or pre/post nuptial agreements.  

Sarah is trained as a child inclusive mediator and hybrid mediator. 

There is a wide choice of non-court family law processes available to clients which aim to enable clients to complete their arrangements in a fair way to give them peace of mind for the future.  Sarah supports clients to resolve matters non-adversarially as best suited to each individual client through one or more of the following ways of working:  

Mediation including hybrid mediation https://www.familylawpartners.co.uk/how-we-work/hybrid-mediation/

Child inclusive mediation –if parents consent to a child inclusive mediator meeting their child and the child is willing to do so (usually for children over the age of 10) and more information is available here: https://www.familylawpartners.co.uk/how-we-work/child-inclusive-mediation/

Collaborative model – each client has their own collaborative lawyer for individual legal advice and support, with minimal correspondence and where we have joint meetings with the other person involved and their collaborative lawyer to reach agreements to give peace of mind for future arrangements including the making of pre-nuptial agreements. 

The ‘one lawyer’ model which can be used where couples are broadly aligned in their goals and would like to work together with one lawyer.

In all these processes, it is often helpful and cost-effective to work in an interdisciplinary way to provide clients with all-round support and expertise and Sarah often works jointly with a family consultant and financial professionals where this would be helpful for clients.

Sarah is co-chair of Resolution’s Collaborative Practice Working Party.  She is a member of Resolution, the Law Society and accredited by the Family Mediation Council.

Meetings with Sarah can be arranged face to face in Brighton and Horsham or remotely via videolink.