Here is how your case will play out, you do the right thing and get lawyer appointed mediation, now as the ex currently has the child and not you, she will be advised by her legal council to run your expensive mediation, at a cost of $1,000 to $4,000 for the 4 hours, then in the last 10 minutes her party will pull everything off the table that has been agreed upon... WHY? because they just wanted to get a feel for what you are after. Plus you are now out of pocket another couple of grand and nothing to show for it. So you get another s60I...yippee.
Seriously if you aren't seeing your child at the moment which I assume is what is happening, then you should of spent your Xmas holidays filling in your Initiating Application, Notice Of Risk, Affidavit, Annexures, Final Orders, and the all-important Interim Orders. You should then have saved the money on another useless mediation and spend the money on A. Having a lawyer review your paperwork prior to filing it yourself or B. Spend the money on having a "good" family lawyer represent you at the first hearing just to secure your time with the child.
Let me it tell it to you straight... you need as many hours as humanly possible with your child from the GET GO...the fact you aren't seeing your child at the moment will be used against you, not her. These judges call it status quo, and they don't deviate from status quo...until they are told to by a family report or a Trial.
In the meantime you should be emailing (only, not text, not phone, just email) the ex every 2nd day requesting time with the child the following day/ weekend, including pick up point and time you are seeking and able to carry it out, make these hours big, ie overnights, across meal times, bath times etc etc. You should of been doing this from the day she didn't hand the child over, so then you can put it in your affidavit/annexure.
