What happens at the end of a successful family mediation?

Imagine that you chose family mediation to resolve your outstanding separation-related issues and that your efforts were successful. You managed to do this either in a single, longer mediation session or in a series of meetings during which the outstanding issues were addressed, one by one. What happens now?

The answer depends on a number of factors. The first question to consider is whether lawyers are involved. Let's treat this as our first scenario. Generally speaking, when the parties have lawyers who actually participate in the mediation session(s), they work with the mediator on crafting a document which the parties will sign before the sessions end, and which will represent a binding agreement between them as to the outstanding issues.