The Family Mediation Regulations in Andalusia, in force since 2012, have recently incorporated new features, after the modification of the family mediation decree approved by the Andalusian Government Council.
This regulation that has been modified is the one that regulates family mediation, which for practical purposes is mediation applied to cases of conflicts due to separations, divorces, breakups of de facto couples, care of people in situations of dependency, guardianship of minors, etc. .
The objective of the new text that reforms the Andalusian legislation on family mediation is adapt to the latest changes in state and community regulations.
Among the changes introduced, the extension of free family mediation service and the streamlining of procedures (being an extrajudicial and voluntary conflict resolution procedure with the intervention of specialized and impartial mediators).
Another of the main novelties is that The registration of professional mediators in the Registry of Family Mediators of Andalusia is no longer mandatory and becomes a volunteer. Additionally, the Registry now allows the registration of professionals with any official university degree (diploma, degree or bachelor's degree).
We must not forget that the family mediation service will never be offered if the following cases occur: that the professional mediator does not consider the procedure viable or that gender violence or mistreatment of a family member is detected.
What are the news of the decree that modifies the Family Mediation Regulations in Andalusia?
- Increase in the minimum level of income required for free service of family mediation to special category large families and people with disabilities, matching the requirements for free legal assistance.
- Expansion of the assumptions for payment exemption. The exemption is now recognized for those family units with dependent minors and formerly supervised adults up to 25 years of age. The payment exemption is also open to adopted or fostered people and their biological, adoptive or foster families, as well as guardians and guardians and people with intellectual disabilities.
- Recognition of new modalities of family unity To access free mediation: units formed by the father, mother or both and adult children, as long as they are financially dependent on their parents. This is in addition to the family figures that are already recognized in the previous decree (married people, de facto couples, couples without legal ties but with common children and relatives up to the third degree of consanguinity).
- The mandatory nature of the registration of professional mediators in the Andalusian Family Mediation Registry becomes voluntary with the new decree.
- Any official university degree is valid for professional mediators who from now on want to practice the profession and register in the Family Mediation Registry, thus following the requirements of European Regulations. Until 2014, only those people with qualifications in the educational, social, psychological and legal fields could be mediators.
- The specific training of mediators, which must have a minimum of hours, will vary depending on whether the registration of the mediator in the Registry is carried out exclusively for the purposes of advertising and information (minimum 100 teaching hours) or if, on the contrary, there is a desire to be part of the shift system for the provision of the service (training of least 300 teaching hours or its equivalent in the European System of Transfer and Accumulation of Credits).
- The registration of mediators in the Registry is extended from 3 to 5 years, extendable for another five.
