The Fairway Engagement™: the moment your path forward becomes clear

What the Fairway Engagement™ means

Both you and your spouse sign an engagement letter and pay the first instalment of your fixed fee. This is the formal agreement to mediate, the mutual commitment from both participants to work through Fairway's Independently Negotiated Resolution™ (INR™) as a mediation service that keeps each party independent throughout.

The flat fee you agreed to at the initial consultation covers the complete INR™ mediation process: every individual session, every joint mediation session, the Financial Pie™ Disclosure, the What is the Law™ Seminar, the financial consensus and division meetings, the Nurtured Children Plan™ if you have children, and the Negotiated Resolution Plan™. Fairway will also facilitate the drafting of your separation agreement. There are no surprise invoices and additional mediator's fees because decisions took longer than expected.

The flat fee matters for a reason that goes beyond expenses. When both spouses and the Fairway team are working toward the same fixed outcome, then no one has anything to gain from delay or complexity. All have the same shared goal: a fair and thorough settlement, reached as efficiently as possible. That alignment is what the Fairway Engagement™ creates.

Why this is different from a lawyer's retainer

With traditional lawyers, costs accumulate from the first call, and no one can tell you the final number until it arrives. The Fairway Engagement™ is a flat fixed fee, agreed before anything begins. It covers the entire process regardless of how long it takes or how many questions get asked. That certainty means both parties can focus on reaching a fair outcome rather than watching the clock.

When you retain lawyers separately and enter the traditional dispute resolution system, the meter starts running from that moment. Every phone call, every email, every letter exchanged between counsel is billed as an expense. Court filings, case preparation, and documents add up quickly. At the end you receive an invoice for a total no one could have told you in advance, because nobody will know how litigation goes and how long it takes.

The Fairway Engagement™ is a form of alternative dispute resolution that works in exactly the opposite direction. You know the full fees before you sign. The mediation agreement covers everything. It does not change because your file took longer than expected. It does not grow because one party asked more questions or needed more time to reach a settlement. 

The fixed fee is agreed to before the mediation process begins. That certainty is not just financially reassuring, it changes the dynamic of the entire approach. When cost is no longer something that accumulates with every exchange, both parties can focus on what actually matters: resolving the issues that affect their finances and their children, including child support and parenting arrangements, without the pressure of climbing fees.