If English is not your first language, you can still take part in family dispute resolution in Australia, and you can do it in the language you are most comfortable using. Because the service is online, it uses live AI translated captions in Google Meet. Each person reads the conversation in their own language, in real time, on their own screen. This post explains how that works, which languages are supported, how the agreement is handled, and what to do if you would prefer a human interpreter.
The short answer
Yes. Online FDR is well suited to people who speak a language other than English, often better than an in-person service. The session runs on Google Meet, which can show live captions translated into the language each person chooses.
One party can speak Vietnamese and read Vietnamese captions while the other speaks Arabic and reads Arabic captions, all in the same session. The practitioner runs the session in English and reads English captions of what each party says, so the whole conversation stays connected across three languages at once.
How translated captions work in your session
Google Meet's translated captions use AI to convert what is spoken into on-screen text in the language each person selects. The captions appear at the bottom of the screen and scroll in real time as people speak. Each participant sets their own caption language, so everyone follows the conversation in the language they read most easily.
The captions are visible only to the person who turns them on. They are not shown to the other participants and are not saved into any recording or transcript of the session. The translation happens live and then it is gone.
The languages supported
Translated captions currently support 69 languages, which means over 4,600 possible language pair combinations. If your language is on this list, the session can be run with you reading captions in that language:
If your language is not on this list, you can still take part by arranging your own interpreter, which is covered further down.
How the process works, step by step
The process is designed so that no one is ever locked into something they did not fully understand. It runs in this order:
The mediation is led by the practitioner and conducted over Google Meet with live AI translated captions, so each party follows the discussion in their own language. When the parties reach an understanding, the agreement is drafted in English. That English draft is then translated, including by using AI translation, so each party can read it in their language. The parties agree in principle and sign only if they are happy with what has been reached, with a clear note on the document that AI translation was used during the mediation and the drafting. Each party then takes both the English version and the translated version to their own lawyer, ideally one who speaks their language, for independent legal advice.
That final step is the safeguard. The signed document records what the parties agreed in principle. It is the independent legal advice that follows, not the mediation itself, that turns an in-principle understanding into something a party should rely on.
Nothing is binding until you have had legal advice
This is the most important point for anyone worried about translation errors. The agreement reached in mediation is not legally binding at the moment it is signed. It is an in-principle agreement. If something was misunderstood during the session, no party is locked into the result.
A parenting agreement reached in FDR is a Parenting Plan, which is not a court order. A financial understanding is similarly not binding at the point it is written down in mediation. These become binding only through later steps that happen with legal advice, such as applying for Consent Orders for a parenting matter or formalising a financial agreement in the form the law requires. Because those steps happen after independent legal advice, a translation mistake made during mediation does not quietly become a binding obligation. It is caught before that point.
This is why the workflow ends with each party seeing their own lawyer. The lawyer reviews the agreement in the party's own language and in English, and advises before anything is formalised.
If you would prefer a human interpreter
Some people will prefer a human interpreter, either instead of or alongside the AI captions. That is welcome, and it is arranged by the parties themselves at their own cost.
If you want to bring an interpreter, a few things apply. The interpreter must sign a Confidentiality Agreement before the intake session and the mediation, because everything said in FDR is confidential. The interpreter attends the session in the capacity of a support person. The other party needs to agree to the interpreter attending in that role. Because both parties are entitled to have a support person, the other party may also choose to bring their own interpreter, so that each side has someone they trust to represent their language accurately.
Arranging your own interpreter gives you control over who is representing your words. It is the right choice for anyone who wants the certainty of a person rather than a machine for the substance of the discussion.
Translation takes longer, but can save on interpreter fees
It helps to know in advance that any translated session, whether it uses AI captions or a human interpreter, takes longer than a mediation conducted in a single shared language. Everything is said and then read or repeated in another language, so the session naturally runs longer. Allow more time than a standard session.
The trade-off is cost. Engaging a human interpreter means paying that interpreter, usually by the hour, and a longer session means more hours. Those fees can run into the thousands across the course of a matter, and they are paid by the parties. Using the AI translated captions built into the session avoids that external cost entirely. Some people will still prefer a human interpreter for accuracy and will accept the fee. Others will be comfortable with the AI captions, especially given that nothing is binding until independent legal advice. Both options are open to you.
Your confidentiality is protected
Everything said in FDR is protected by two separate provisions of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). Section 10H makes communications in the FDR process confidential. Section 10J makes them inadmissible, meaning that even if confidentiality were breached, what was said could not be used as evidence in court. These protections apply to a translated session as to any other.
The AI translation runs on Google's infrastructure as part of Google Meet. The use of Google's services, including AI processing and the possibility of data being processed outside Australia, is disclosed in our Privacy Policy in line with Australian Privacy Principle 8. The captions are visible only to the person who turns them on and are not saved into the session recording or transcript.
Arranging a session in your language
The first step is the free discovery call. If you speak a language other than English, that call cannot be made through a normal phone line, because phone calls do not carry live translation.
Instead, book the discovery call through the website, and it will be held over Google Meet with translated captions, the same way the mediation itself runs. That way the very first conversation already happens in your language.
From there, the process is the same as any other matter, with translated captions running throughout, the agreement handled in the step-by-step way described above, and independent legal advice before anything is formalised. Speaking a language other than English is not a barrier to resolving a family law matter out of court. It is exactly the kind of situation online FDR is built to handle.