Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors are now also Family Law Solicitors in Torquay
The last 18 months has been an exceptional period for Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors.
In this period, we have:
Whilst less visible, we have made changes to our website and to our procedures so that we have improved out transparency about legal pricing/charges and our systems to provide and outstanding service to our clients.
As part of these changes we have incorporated innovative technology into our website to assist new clients to better engage with us and to improve what we are able to provide at initial meeting. We have also introduced a pay as you go and wider fixed fee service.
The final step in this period of growth is the opening of our Torquay Family Law Office on the 03 June 2019.
Our Torquay Family Law Office is conveniently located in Lymington Road, at the Torquay Business Centre.
We selected this as a location because it is easily accessible from all parts of Torquay. Torquay Business Centre is a relatively short distance from Torquay County Court. It is also reasonably convenient for Torbay Council social services meetings at Union House.
We also have the benefit of being able to offer free parking (subject to availability and normally pre-booking) and good disabled access.
Our Torquay solicitors team will be led by Nicole Phare.
Nicole qualified as a specialist family law solicitor in 2005 and specialises in both children law and divorce.
Nicole enjoyed a long career in family law before qualifying as a solicitor and most of her career has been spent working for different practices in Torbay
Nicole will be supported in building our Torquay family law solicitors office by our director Ian Walker and highly experienced solicitors David Howell-Richardson and Sandy Powell.
Both Ian and Sandy have had careers which have included working for South Devon/Torquay practices and between us, we have assisted many Torbay families over the years.
We are conscious that over the years the number of solicitors firms who undertake complex children work in Torquay has significantly reduced.
Before we opened our Torquay solicitors office there were only two firms of solicitors with offices in Torquay which included members of the Law Society Children Panel and which still offer a legally aided service.
By opening an office in Torquay we have taken this number up to 3.
From our Torquay family law solicitors office we will be assisting clients both with children law and divorce.
We are a team of specialist divorce lawyers in Torquay. We will be offering a divorce service from our Torquay family law office.
At Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors we are committed members of the family law solicitors organisation Resolution. Ian Walker is now in his third (three year) term as the elected chair of the Devon region of resolution. Ian is also a member of Resolution’s national Dispute Resolution Committee which promotes innovation and best practice in resolving family Law and divorce cases out of court. He has previously served as both a member of the Law Society Family Law Committee and as a trustee of the Family Mediators Association. One of Ian’s achievements was the introduction of collaborative family law in Devon.
We are committed to assisting our divorce clients to resolve their cases in a principled and fair way which focuses on achieving good outcomes but ensures that the needs of the couple’s children are not lost in (often unnecessary) adult disputes.
If you believe we can assist – please do get in touch.
In six and half years we have grown from nothing to being a leading family law solicitors practice and mediation service in the south-west.
We have achieved our growth through the innovative use of technology. Are use of technology is both client facing and also within the platform through which we work. We make good use of cloud technology. We use other innovative software and we subscribe to the best available family law practice support service.
We now have SRA authorised offices in Honiton, Exeter, Torquay and Weston-super-Mare as well as consulting rooms we access in Yeovil and Bridgwater.
Our team consists of both employed solicitors and fee share consultant’s.
Whilst on the one hand we intend to consolidate the advances we have made over the last 18 months, on the other hand, we are always open to new opportunities.
We are therefore ever open to hear from outstanding family lawyers who might be based in Devon and Somerset slightly further afield who are interested in joining an innovative, collegiate, noncorporate but highly professional and expert team. Our team has grown around its people and being open to new opportunities and if you share our vision and would like to join our journey then we would like to hear from you. (Equity opportunities are available). Join our Family Law Solicitors in Torquay.
2017 was a really good year for Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors, but 2018 promises to be even better. Below is what I can tell you about our plans for 2018, but first, the highlights of 2017 (in no particular order):
Thanks to all who have helped us get this far. I am looking forward to 2018
In 2017 the family Family Solicitors organisation, Resolution published a briefing paper on the future of family law called : Law and Justice briefing ; The current landscape and direction of travel
Here is a link to the paper: http://www.resolution.org.uk/editorial.asp?page_id=1292 but it is in the members only section.
For those who don’t know, I have been a member of Resolution for over 20 years and I am the longstanding Chair of the Devon Region. I am also a member of the national Dispute Resolution Committee.
The paper was written by my old friend Angela Lake-Carroll who I first met nearly 20 years ago when I was one of a handful of solicitors invited by the Legal Aid Agency to participate in their FAINS: Family Advice and Information Networks project. Angela is well respected in the family law community and also a member of the Dispute Resolution Committee.
In summary, the paper analyses the market for the demand for and the delivery of family law (and mediation) services and discusses threats and opportunities.
Threats will include:
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In the next couple of weeks the Legal Aid Agency will finally be launching the tender process for new Legal Aid contracts to run from 2018. Those providers wishing to offer/ continue to offer a legally aided service for both family law and for family mediation from May 2018 will need to tender for new contracts.
This tender process has been much delayed and we are pleased that it will finally be happening.
From what we understand, we should meet the expected criteria for family law and family mediation:
This is the third tender process and the previous one was the trigger for the foundation of Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors.
That there is a broad and accessible supplier base is important to allow clients to access justice.
Together with the Committee of Devon Resolution (of which I am Chair), we have organised some training to assist members of Devon Resolution to get their tenders right.
We are fortunate to have arranged the training with Matt Howgate who is a Legal Aid expert and is the main trainer for the Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG).
The training will be on 13 October in Exeter. Devon Resolution members should already have received notice. If you are a Devon Resolution member and didn’t get my email about the training, please let me know asap.
The training is particularly aimed at those and their deputies who will be responsible for preparing, checking and submitting their firms tenders
Since founding Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors in 2013 we have grown from just me to the largest family team based in our part of East Devon and comparable to/ bigger than the family teams of some much larger firms based in Exeter and Taunton.
Kim Stradling joining us will really add to the strength and depth of our team.
Kim has joined us from Devon Solicitors Everys – where she was a partner and head of the family department
We assist clients from our offices and consulting rooms in Honiton, Taunton and Exeter.
The team now consists of:
Member Children Panel, Resolution Accredited Specialist, Arbitrator, (An Arbitrator is a private judge who is able to make legally binding decisions) Family Mediator both Law Society and Family Mediation Council Accredited Civil Mediator Member of Devon and Somerset Mediation Panel
Member Children Panel, Resolution Accredited Specialist, Family Mediator
Resolution Accredited Specialist
We are very pleased to announce that Carrie Meikle was awarded the prestigious Resolution Accredited Specialist Family Solicitor status in December 2016.
Carrie deals with all areas of family law, but her two chosen specialisms for the accreditation are representing clients where there has been domestic abuse and also in respect of cases about child arrangements.
Carrie joined us in April 2016. We are very committed to the ongoing training of our team and supporting team members in gaining accreditations. One of our first decisions when reviewing Carrie’s ongoing training plan, was to support her in applying for the accreditation standard as soon as possible.
There are set points in the year when applications can be submitted. Carrie’s accreditation in December was therefore the earliest point after joining us when Carrie was able to demonstrate her expertise.
Resolution specialists are members who have chosen to test their skills and expertise through a rigorous assessment of their knowledge, abilities and way that they work with you and other people.
Resolution specialists are proven experts in a range of areas of the law arising from family breakdown.
We are contracted with the Legal Aid Agency to provide legal advice and legal representation to those who qualify for Legal Aid. (We also have a Legal Aid Contract for family mediation).
Most of our legally aided cases involve social services or child arrangements or assisting clients who have been subjected to domestic abuse. We have obtained some good results for clients since we opened.
For example, we successfully assisted a parent who had lost a previous child to adoption, to be given a fair opportunity to show that she could parent her new baby. The outcome of the case was that she was allowed to keep her baby in her care.
In another case we required a local authority to respect the rights of learning disabled parents.In a complex case, we ensured that our client received a fair hearing and that all issues were properly considered.
We successfully assisted another parent to keep her child in her care despite a determined application by the Local Authority to have the child placed in long-term foster care.
We successfully assisted a mother to secure the return of her daughter from the care of her estranged parents. The child had gone to live with the parents during a difficult time in the mother’s life. That has since passed and the Court was satisfied that it was in the child’s best interests to live with our client and also with their sibling.
We assisted a mother to obtain a Protective Injunction against her former partner who had persistently harassed her. He then left her alone.
A requirement of our Legal Aid Contract is that we hold the Specialist Quality Mark. This is a Quality Standard – which is independently audited – which requires us to operate with identifiable written processes which ensure that we are able to provide a quality service to clients.
The Specialist Quality Mark was originally granted to us in 2013 – during our first year of trading. The Quality Mark needs to be renewed every three years. At the beginning of August we were re-audited. (more…)
I am a family mediator who is accredited by the Law Society. I was trained as a mediator by the Solicitors Family Law Association – now Resolution. Both organisations are members of the Family Mediation Council.
The Family Mediation Council is the overarching governing body for family mediation. Both the Law Society and Resolution are members of the Family Mediation Council (FMC) along with other mediation governing bodies including the Family Mediators Association – of which I’m also a member. It’s a bit complicated. Basically the idea was The Family Mediation Council was formed to draw together the different and disparate mediation bodies. Hopefully in due course the regulatory roles of all of the different mediation bodies will be drawn together and merge into the FMC.
This is a slight digression but, the post that I wanted to make was that last month I attended a forum for family mediation supervisors (Professional Practice Consultants – PPC’s) organised by Resolution. It was an informative day – the lead speaker was Robert Crichton of the Family Mediation Standards Board (essentially a subsidiary from the FMC tasked with unifying standards across the different mediation bodies). The mediation world is quite small and it was also a good opportunity to catch up with some old friends.
The Family Mediation Council has required mediators to gain accreditation and to register with it in order for those mediators to be able to undertake Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings and to be able to sign off the relevant parts of court applications.
Because, like me many mediators are registered with several of the old governing bodies, and because the old governing bodies weren’t always very cooperative with each other, it wasn’t really known how many accredited mediators there actually were.
The registration process has been completed. Long-standing mediators who were approved to undertake legally aided work but who were not actually accredited by one of the old governing bodies have also been required to gain accreditation as mediators either with the Law Society or with the Family Mediation Council. This accreditation process is nearly complete.
What we did learn on the day was that by the time the whole registration and late accreditation process is completed, there will only be around 800 accredited mediators nationally.This was less than had been expected. It is also noteworthy that the population of mediators is ageing and what is currently required to achieve accreditation is quite onerous (and expensive) and the number of accredited mediators is likely to go down before it goes up.
I qualified as a mediator very early in my family law career and now have 20 years as a mediator behind me. (more…)
The world of family mediation is currently going through a period of change and tightening of standards.
In 2016 I am celebrating the 20 years that have passed since I initially trained as a family mediator. At that time Family Mediation in England was pretty much unregulated. I trained with the Solicitors Family Law Association which has since become Resolution and which is one of the key organisations that make up the Family Mediation Council. I am also a member of the Law Society and the Family Mediators Association which are two other members of the Family Mediation Council. In fact – my trainers back in 1996 were Henry Brown and Felicity White who were two of the founders of the Family Mediators Association and pioneers of Family Mediation in England and Wales.
The course which I undertook was in the first round of training organised by the Solicitors Family Law Association and designed specifically for family law solicitors.
I was later on amongst the first 20 or so mediators to gain accreditation with SFLA/Resolution. I subsequently became a supervisor for other mediators and approved to be able to undertake meetings with children as part of the mediation process.
As part of the recent changes to family mediation we now have the Family Mediation Standards Board
In order to undertake Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings and to sign the relevant court forms, mediators have to be registered with the Family Mediation Standards Board.
I received my application form for registration at the end of last year, which I duly sent off with the requisite fee. I have today received confirmation of my registration (slightly belatedly!). My Unique Registration Number (URN) is 0292A
The letter A records that I have accredited (FMCA status). FMCA being Family Mediation Council accredited.
For the avoidance of doubt, only mediators with a registration number ending in ‘A’ or ‘P’ (Provisional accreditation) can sign court forms. When I sign court forms I now need to add FMCA 0292A as confirmation that it is me who has signed the form.
The courts should start to reject application forms which are not signed by a mediator with the proper credentials.
Therefore, if you are seeking a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting – make sure that you see a mediator like me who has the proper registration credentials with the Family Mediation Standards Board.
I am not aware of any other Mediator who has FMCA status and who is registered with the Family Mediation Standards Board who is based in East Devon. I am based in Honiton but also cover Exeter and Taunton.
Our current charges for Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings are £100 plus VAT to include me signing the relevant court form.
I am delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for the 2016 Devon & Somerset Law Society’s Inaugural Awards in the Innovation Award category
After a lengthy judging process on Thursday 26th November, our business was selected as one of the final few to go forward to the Awards Evening in March 2016.
The shortlisted people and firms will officially be announced in print and online on Thursday 3rd December in the Western Morning News and Exeter Express & Echo.
The Awards Evening will formally take place on Thursday 3rd March 2016, at Sandy Park in Exeter at the Devon & Somerset Law Society Annual Dinner
How are we innovators?
It is difficult to anything that is completely new, and you would not necessarily want to anyway. When clients choose a law firm they want the knowledge that they are making a good choice for them, to enable then to achieve a good outcome. Clients don’t want to take big risks.
At Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors we seek to innovate in the following way: (more…)
