On the 11 and 12 October 2018 travelled to Nottingham to attend Resolution’s annual Dispute Resolution Conference. The aim of the conference is to bring to together family law experts in dispute resolution to share their experiences and to discuss and learn about the latest ideas for innovation and promoting best practice.

The Resolution Dispute Resolution Conference is organised by Resolution’s Dispute Resolution Committee, of which I am a member. (Although I hasten to add that I was not on the conference organising subcommittee).

There were around 160 – 180 delegates from all around the country. It is always enjoyable to catch up with friends and colleagues and to meet other like-minded professionals. The majority of the delegates are either mediators, collaborative family lawyers or family arbitrators or like myself all 3 (as well as being practising specialist family law solicitors and barristers).

Promoting collaborative family law

Amongst the topics discussed were promoting collaborative family law as the normal way of family law practice.

Sadly we are not quite there yet, with collaborative family law being the normal way of family law practice with some lawyers practising within family law still taking a litigious approach which can exacerbate family difficulties – and which is avoidant of the use of family mediation, collaborative family law and arbitration

Other topics included; Innovation in family law/mediation/collaborative law/arbitration; better preparing clients for stressful meetings including by encouraging clients to make use of techniques such as mindfulness and by accessing counselling; working together with complimentary professionals (such as financial advisers and children experts) and integrating working together in different aspects of practice; better assisting families to implement children court orders achieved through court proceedings (often with high conflict) or mediation and assisting couples to better work together in order to avoid returning to court.

Amita Sehgal – dealing with stress and anger

The Henry Brown Lecture (named after Henry Brown – Henry is a pioneer of the use of family mediation in the UK and who incidentally trained me as both a family mediator in 1996 and a civil/commercial mediator – Henry is now enjoying his retirement) was given by Amita Sehgal who is a couple psychoanalytic psychotherapist accredited by the British Psychoanalytic Council through the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology. This considered the impacts of dealing with stress and anger and steps that could be taken to minimise the negative impacts of these.

Jo Berry and Patrick Magee – Building Bridges for Peace

The highlight of the conference was undoubtedly the keynote address given by Jo Berry and Patrick Magee of Building Bridges for Peace.

Jo Berry is the daughter of Sir Anthony Berry MP who was amongst those killed in the bombing of the Grand Hotel, Brighton by the IRA (Irish Republican Army) on October 12, 1984. Patrick Magee is the man who planted the bomb and who was convicted and sent to prison for that act.

Jo described how within 2 days of her father being killed she resolved to find something positive out of what had happened and to bring meaning to and even understand those who had killed her father.

Jo and Patrick met 16 years later after Patrick was released from prison as part of the Northern Ireland peace process. The charity Building Bridges for Peace was launched in Brighton in October 2009 on the 25th anniversary of the bombing.

Building Bridges for Peace works to enable divided communities and the general public to explore and better understand the roots of war, terrorism and violence. Jo and Patrick promote dialogue and mediation as the means to peace.

Jo Berry and Pat Magee have given talks in Palestine, Lebanon, Rwanda and throughout the UK.
There is a quote on the Building Bridges for Peace website http://www.buildingbridgesforpeace.org/ from Terry Waite CBE which is worth repeating;

To be a subject of a grievous wrong is always wounding and painful and can frequently provoke anger.

However, anger, if allowed to fester is like a cancer of the soul. It does more harm to those who hold it than against those whom it is held.

Jo Berry knows from personal experience what it is to have to face deep suffering as her father was blown up in a IRA bomb. She has let go of personal need for revenge and empathised with Patrick Magee, the man responsible for planting the bomb.

To hear her speak alongside the one who killed her father is a living demonstration of the transforming power of reconciliation when two people who have been on different sides truly listen and can see each other’s humanity, an example this sad world so desperately need.
Terry Waite CBE – humanitarian and former hostage

It was particularly inspiring to hear Jo and Patrick speak on a day that was in fact the 34th anniversary of the bombing.

Terry Waite’s words encapsulate the importance of the work of Jo and Patrick not only in the theatre of political conflict but also in the theatre of personal conflict.

Anger in personal conflict

As family law practitioners we are very often assisting clients who have been wronged and who are angry with their former partner who they feel has caused them that wrong.

The anger and pain is very often a two-way thing. Unresolved anger can play out in making it much harder to reach objectively reasonable outcomes and can be compounded by further anger generated through the process of divorce/separation and having orders/outcomes imposed. A couple’s children can be caught within this conflict and this can be very damaging indeed. This can play out in children being psychologically harmed, losing contact with one parent or family members (sometimes with parental alienation) or not receiving good role modelling to equip them to deal with resolving disputes in their own lives in the best way.

I would strongly recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to listen to Jo and Patrick speak then you should take this up. What they have achieved together, both on a personal level as well as through their wider work is truly inspiring.

The delegates to whom I spoke, all left thinking about how they could better assist their clients through their own personal conflicts.

Conclusion

I left the conference re-energised that as a practice we are clearly on the right track in terms of how we are trying to assist our clients and over the next few months we will be reflecting further upon how we can make improvements to our service and to supporting our team to do this.

I am already looking forward to the 2019 Resolution Dispute Resolution Conference.

We know that Christmas is not a happy time that everyone. Indeed it can be very lonely and depressing. Some parents are for various reasons unable to spend time with their children on the main days of the Christmas holiday or even at all.

Family disputes in the run-up to Christmas

In the run-up to Christmas we deal with a surge in cases where separated parents are in dispute over the arrangements through which children will spend time with each parent over the Christmas holiday. Here are some hopefully helpful thoughts.

Try family mediation

The best arrangements for children are ones where their parents are able to communicate well with each other and where both parents have confidence that the other will deliver their side of the agreement. The best arrangements are where parents are able to trust each other. Unless there is a significant safety issue the best way to achieve the best arrangements is through the parents talking to each other and finding a way to put past difficulties behind them. Mediation can be an excellent forum for achieving this. The starting point to a successful mediation is both parents accepting that there is a problem that needs to be resolved and both wishing to do something to resolve the problem.

Get good Legal advice

Where advice is required it is always a good idea to do this as soon as it becomes clear that the problem will not easily be solved. In our experience problems do not easily go away if nothing is done to try and solve them. Reasonable arrangements for children over the Christmas period often include Christmas Day being shared or children spending Christmas with one family one year and with another the next. However, all situations are different. Getting specific legal advice is usually a good idea.

We are a Firm of Solicitors specialising in family law and a mediation service that is based in Honiton in East Devon. We also have branch offices in Taunton. Our mediation service is contracted with the legal aid agency to offer legally aided mediation in Honiton Exeter and Taunton. If you qualify for legal aid for mediation then the mediation will be free of charge.We are members of the family solicitors organisation Resolution. Ian Walker is currently the elected chair of the Devon region Of Resolution

How successful is family mediation?

It is impossible to know for Non-Legally Aided Mediation. There are no central and independently audited statistics.

What the Legal Aid Agency Mediation statistics show

There are statistics for Legally Aided Mediation though.

The outcomes of legally aided mediations are audited by the Legal Aid Agency. If success is over claimed, the Legal Aid Agency will disallow the success fee that is otherwise paid. If there was a pattern for this happening – then there would be sanctions under the terms of the Legal Aid Contract.

We can therefore say that the Legal Aid Agency statistics are reasonably reliable.

The latest round of statistics have recently been published

Here is a table:

The Legal Aid Agency say:

Family mediation can be used to resolve issues to do with children or property and finance following divorce or separation, and the ‘all issues’ category describes mediations which deal with both areas.

The children category consistently accounts for the majority of starts, comprising 64% of all mediation starts in the last year (this information is taken from the more detailed data published alongside this bulletin).

Mediations can either break down or result in an agreement.

Like other areas of mediation, agreements fell following LASPO. They have since stabilised at just over half of pre-LASPO levels (see figure 16).

Mediations in the ‘all issues’ category can reach full agreement, where agreement is reached on all issues, or partial agreement, wherein an agreement has been reached on either children or property and finance, but not both. As such, successful agreements include both partial agreements and full agreements.

Over the last year 62% of all mediation outcomes involved successful agreements. The rate of success varied between different categories of mediation, with the highest proportion of agreements (63%) in the children category (this information is taken from the more detailed data published alongside this bulletin).

What do the figures tell us?

 There is a lot less Legally Aided Mediation taking place than before the legal aid reforms which were supposed to promote mediation: 15000 ish down to around 8000 ish per year (the 2016-2017 were down so far from 2015-2016)

A greater proportion of mediation is about children issues and this is more successful than financial mediation

Success within these figures also includes partially successful. This is most likely to be where children issues have been resolved and financial issues have not.

If around 40% of mediation is unsuccessful – the failure rate for financial mediation will be higher – this is because success includes partial success. What this is most likely to mean is a failure to resolve financial issues but that there has been success in resolving child arrangements. As in my experience many couples tend to focus on one area of dispute, resolving children issues when finances are in dispute tends to be more straightforward.

40% failure rate means that nothing has been resolved at all.

The proportion of successful mediation is no better now than before the legal aid changes – why is this? 64% successful in 2006/7, 68% success in 2007/8, 66% success in 2012/13.  Arguably the previous legal aid rules pulled even more contact cases into mediation.

Points to note/Questions

• To have a legally aid contract for mediation a mediation service needs to have an experienced mediator working in the service and overseeing its mediators
• Any mediator can undertake non legally aided mediation. Inexperienced mediators are likely to have higher failure rates.
• If experienced and quality assessed mediators are more successful at children mediation than simpler financial cases – can we realistically think that they will be any better at more complicated financial cases – with multiple properties and significant pensions and other assets?
• The normal family mediation model is only moderately successful in simpler financial cases – is it really suited for more complex cases?
• There are a lot of mediations that break down – where to the cases go… largely to Court…where else can they go? which means the cost of mediation was wasted.
• is a 54%  success rate for mediation in financial cases acceptable?
• is a 63-ish% success rate in children cases acceptable? More so than finances certainly.
• The help that mediation provides in successful cases shouldn’t be underestimated – this is a lot of families assisted to find a better way… but …
• Couples entering mediation are ones where the couple want to mediate, they want to find solutions, and the mediator has assessed that there is a reasonable prospect of success. The failed cases shouldn’t be regarded as hopeless cases. The hopeless cases will already have been filtered out.

Our View

• Mediation can be very difficult to set up – clients (often rightly) worry about whether the other is truly willing to negotiate, and sometimes they struggle themselves with the idea that they may have to compromise.
• Sometimes mediation is undermined by solicitors. For example – I had one recent case as a solicitor where my client agreed resolution in mediation and shook hands – yet the other party’s solicitor immediately sought to renegotiate (despite her client having received advice in support of the mediation process). In the end my client paid some more to avoid litigation costs and because he had had enough. The mediator would count their work as a success – but this didn’t tell the whole story. In another case (financial) , as a mediator; I sent a couple off to get legal advice and a pension report and some legal advice. I was contacted some time later to sign the mediator part of the court application. They hadn’t obtained the pension report, but they had continued (unsuccessfully) negotiation via round table meetings and with counsel. The mediation had not broken down when I had last seen them – so why had they not come back?
• The traditional family mediation model (mediator and clients in a 3 way meeting – with legal advice between meetings) struggles with financial cases and is best suited to children cases.
• For financial cases it is often better to involve solicitors – but this means moving to a shuttle model with each team in different rooms. As a mediator who is also a Civil Commercial Mediator the different style of civil mediation is better suited to more complex and involved cases – including where professionals are involved. Involving Solicitors means that the mediation is less likely to unravel afterwards.
• But no mediation can guarantee success. It cannot – because both sides are free to walk away – that is both a strength and a weakness. The voluntary nature of mediation helps because the couple are choosing to find a solution. It is their commitment. But there can clearly be no guarantees.
• What can achieve 100% of decisions is going to Court! But this is very expensive and divisive. But Court decisions are not necessarily long term solutions
• What can also achieve a 100% decisions – but at less cost by combining mediation with arbitration
• Arbitration is another type of dispute resolution where a private judge (the arbitrator) is engaged. Arbitration is a flexible process which is much quicker than Court. There is a lot about it our website.
• Under our mediation with arbitration scheme – if a mediated agreement cannot be achieved – then the case moves seamlessly into arbitration where an arbitrator (a private judge) makes a legally binding decision. But the process will be less divisive and perhaps 1/3 of the cost of a court process and much quicker – there is much more about all this on my website. Many of the benefits of mediation are retained because the couple are also choosing together to arbitrate if the mediation fails. It is therefore a voluntary process with a binding outcome. This has to be the way forward… combining the benefits of negotiation with the certainty that there can be a quick outcome if the mediation fails.
• But the better model for mediation for finance cases is the civil model – which is purer and less emotive negotiation which involves solicitors better.

Is a 54% -ish success rate for financial mediation acceptable? You can see why people are wary – particularly when money is tight – but Court is rarely the answer. We think that our combination of mediation with arbitration provides the best option.

If you want to see the legal aid data look here.

Should clients be put off  trying mediation?

No – remember overall 62% of cases were resolved. Resolution would have saved clients a lot of cost and should also have preserved or improved family relationships.

But – prospective clients need to be realistic – mediation is no magic wand.

For mediation to work, clients need to fully commit to the process and deliver on commitments made during the process. They must be prepared to have some give and take.

Perhaps also clients need to be more selective in their choice of mediator?

What are the mediators skills and background. Personally I always refer my clients to specific experienced mediators who are either practicing solicitors or who are non-practicing solicitors. But – I think my model of linking my mediation practice to a panel of arbitrators who are known to me is the way to go (although unfortunately legal aid is not available for arbitration – although if the matters still unresolved at the end of a mediation are reasonably narrow then a paper based arbitration can be inexpensive and certainly cheaper than the alternative)

Me – Family Law Solicitor/Family Mediator/Civil Mediator/Arbitrator

I have been a Family Mediator since 1996 and am a supervisor of other mediators. I am accredited by the Family Mediation Council and the Law Society. I am also a Civil/Commercial Mediator and member of the Devon and Somerset Mediation Panel. I am a Family Law Arbitrator (Children Scheme) via IFLA and I am a practicing Solicitor with Accreditations via the Law Society and Resolution.

In other words I am quadruple qualified.

This means I am aware of the pros and cons of all relevant practice models and am well placed to comment.

I have been undertaking legally aided mediation for nearly 20 years. I have my own Solicitors practice based in Honiton but covering Taunton and Exeter. Our Mediation with Arbitration scheme is portable to anywhere within a reasonable travel distance…

But, all this means that I understand how the different styles of practice work – and don’t work – and perhaps also how they can best work together…

To coincide with Resolution Good Divorce Week we are launching our own innovative Family Law Mediation-Arbitration (med-arb) Scheme.

The Problem

Sorting out financial arrangements connected with divorce can be painfully slow and horrendously expensive. If the case proceeds through a court process costs can easily exceed £15,000 each and the whole process from walking into a solicitors office for the first time to obtaining a financial order can take over a year – sometimes well over a year

Mediation can help couples to reach agreements much quicker and at less cost – but mediation does not guarantee that an agreement will be reached. If the mediation fails this adds to the cost and to the delay – which is why many families – particularly where there is a limited budget decide not to mediate.

Our Solution

I am one of a handful of practitioners who are quadruple qualified as a Solicitor, Family Mediator, Civil Mediator and Arbitrator. What I have done, is to work out a scheme – a process – which combines the security to clients of receiving legal advice and representation, the benefits of reaching an agreement through mediation together with the certainty of outcome that can be achieved with arbitration.

Most clients are familiar with what a solicitor does (advise and represent) and what a mediator does (assist the couple on a neutral basis to negotiate – and hopefully also to improve their working relationship).

Arbitration is a different form of resolving disputes. It is relatively new in the context of family breakdown. Essentially the arbitrator is a private judge who will make a legally binding decision.

Everyone does what they are good at

In our Family Law Mediation-Arbitration Scheme we have worked at a process where the solicitors gather together financial disclosure and advise their clients on the parameters and fairness of what a settlement could be. This is what solicitors are really good at. Obtaining a clear financial picture can be more challenging for a mediator.

The solicitors and the mediator and the couple work towards a one off mediation meeting where all will attend – armed with all the information that they need with a view to reaching an agreement. We have called this the Case Resolution Mediation Meeting. Most cases will settle at this stage.

The mediator will work with the couple at the outset to deal with any interim issues and then before the Case Resolution Mediation Meeting to help the couple be properly prepared for that meeting – in order to maximise the prospects of settlement.The mediator will use their skills at the Case Resolution Mediation Meeting to maximise the prospects of settlement. If all goes well a final financial consent order will be drafted on the day.

Cases which don’t settle at the mediation stage move seamlessly into arbitration

If the case does not settle at the Case Resolution Mediation Meeting our Family Law Mediation-Arbitration Scheme allows the case to move seamlessly into an arbitration process.

In most cases, even if there is not an agreement at the Case Resolution Mediation Meeting, the gap between the couple should be sufficiently narrow that the arbitrator will be able to make a decision simply by looking at the paperwork.

If a paper arbitration is not possible then there will be an arbitration hearing.

Even in the worst-case scenario, the whole process should be able to be completed in less than six months. The biggest potential delay would be obtaining pension information/advice.

Apart from the scenario where there is an attended Arbitration Hearing – the eventualities are sufficiently predictable that these can be charged on a fixed fee basis. Full details of the fixed fees are in the scheme documentation. However, in all scenarios the costs should be significantly less then a contested court process.

Committing to case resolution from the outset

The process gets underway after the couple and their solicitors sign the mediation contract and the binding agreement to arbitrate. This means that if the mediation part fails everyone is committed to proceed to arbitration. Our Family Law Mediation-Arbitration Scheme does however include a single break clause which deals with a scenario where one of the couple fails to provide full financial disclosure. This break is there as a safeguard – but it is unlikely to be needed – because exercising the break calls will commit the couple to spending thousands of pounds in a court process.

Our professional team

In order for this to all work we need to have a team of expert arbitrators and solicitors who are committed to working within the process and who are willing to work to the fee scheme.

Our panel of arbitrators

I am pleased to say that we are very lucky with our panel of participating arbitrators. These are:

Karin Walker|Partner KGW Family Law, Woking

Ian Taylor |Partner Coodes, St Austell. Deputy District Judge

Rhys Taylor |Barrister, 36 Bedford Row Chambers, London.

Barbara Corbett | Partner, Benest Corbett Renouf, Jersey.

Karin Walker is a member of the National Committee of Resolution and she is also the Chair of the Resolution Dispute Resolution Committee.All of our participating arbitrators and our initial panels of solicitors have considered the terms of the Family Law Mediation-Arbitration Scheme very carefully and are all very happy to be involved in it. The mediation side of the scheme has also been independently assessed by my own mediation PPC (practice supervisor).

Our mediator

I am in the role of mediator.I have been a family mediator since 1996.

I am also a practising solicitor and an arbitrator and mediator for civil disputes (where the style of mediation is slightly different).

Inclusive and not exclusive

Our scheme is inclusive and not exclusive. We would be very happy for other solicitors to participate and we will also be happy for the solicitors to pick arbitrators not on our panel.

To be included on the list – solicitors need to commit to the fixed fees and to working within the spirit of the scheme.

I could not speak to everyone that I know in the legal world when I was working this out. I therefore limited those who I discussed it with to some near neighbours.

If anyone would like to be added to the list, they will be very welcome.

Devon and Somerset and elsewhere

I will be offering the scheme in its attached form in East Devon (from Honiton), Exeter, Taunton and Newton Abbot. I am happy to run a modified version of the scheme elsewhere.

If you are slightly further afield and you would like to be able to participate in the scheme then please do let me know and we can work out how we can make modifications to benefit your clients.

I’m pleased to announce that I have been admitted as a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators/Institute of Family Law Arbitrators (IFLA).

On Monday, 18 July 2016 Institute of Family Law Arbitrators (IFLA) will be formally launching its Children Law Arbitration Scheme at Parliament Chamber, Inner Temple, London.

I am pleased to say that I will be one of the founding Child Law Arbitrators within the Children Law Scheme.

In order to undertake the training as a child law arbitrator I needed to demonstrate my experience in this area of law and I also need to produce references from two Judges of my suitability.

I am very pleased and honoured to have gained this qualification. Over the next few years there is likely to be a growth in the use of arbitration in family disputes. I am pleased to be at the cutting edge of the development of this area practice.

I will be updating our website over the next few weeks with details of our arbitration service.

What is Arbitration?

Arbitration is a form of dispute resolution. The parties enter into an agreement under which they appoint a suitably qualified person (an “arbitrator”) to adjudicate a dispute and make an award. (more…)

This week is Resolutions annual Dispute Resolution Week. The idea is to raise awareness of constructive ways of dealing with divorce and other family disputes.

I am a big supporter of the aims of Dispute Resolution Week. I am Chair of the Devon Region of Resolution. I have been on the Devon Committee for over 10 years and a Resolution member for around 20 years. I was one of the first Family Mediators trained by Resolution in 1996 and I am was also an early adopter of Collaborative Family Law.

We are not doing anything in Devon this year as we have other things in the pipeline for 2016, but those of us who are members encourage anyone with an interest to read the research commissioned by Resolution for Dispute Resolution Week and to watch the new video (embedded in this post)

Here is a summary of the research

Don’t stay together for our sake, say children

New polling has found that around eight out of ten children and young people with experience of parental separation or divorce would prefer their parents to split up if they are unhappy, rather than stay together. (more…)

Below is our forthcoming article in East Devon’s Midweek Herald Newspaper. I like the Midweek Herald which covers Honiton, Axminster, Seaton, Ottery St Mary, Beer and Sidmouth. I have been a regular reader since we moved to East Devon 15 years ago. I have reproduced the article in full.

All Change for Family Law

April 2014 has seen big changes in how disputes between separating partners and about children should be dealt with. These include the introduction of a Unified Family Court; the abolition of Residence and Contact Orders (Child Arrangements Orders instead) and a greater expectation that couples should resolve their disputes out of Court with the assistance of a professional mediator.

Is Family Mediation now compulsory?

It is now a Legal requirement that (more…)

Family Mediation in Honiton, East Devon, Exeter and Taunton

As you know we are both a specialist family law solicitors legal practice and a mediation service undertaking both family mediation and mediation in civil and commercial disputes. These two sides to the practice are very different.

As a solicitor, I advise my clients of the different options open to them and give them my professional view of the best path for them to choose.

As a mediator. I do not give advice, but my role is to help the parties in mediation equally in their desire to achieve a solution to their problem.

When I am instructed as a solicitor in family law cases such as divorce or financial disputes between cohabitants or on child contact issues; after exploring with my client whether any safety issues arise, I will often make referrals to mediation. When mediation has commenced, I am (more…)

The Court and Mediation Timetables for children cases Compared

How long does the Court take to decide cases about children?

We regularly deal with mediation cases where contact and communications have broken down. Parents can be skeptical about whether mediation might work and worry that it might be a waste of time. Typical thoughts can be;

“How long does mediation take?”

“If I mediate, will I be wasting months of time? surely its quicker just to go to Court “

“If I go to mediation, the my former partner will just string things along and I will get nowhere”  (more…)

Exeter and Devon Mediators Reception; Legal professionals come together in the spirit of mediation

We had a great evening. But the main point of the evening was to allow us to spread the message that Mediation works for families and that Legal Aid is still widely available for mediation. Hopefully the press release (below) will be picked up in the local press.

 

Press Release 5^th December 2013

Here is the press release

Legal professionals come together in the spirit of mediation

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***

EXETER | DEVON

“Legal Aid is still widely available for Family Mediation” and “Family Mediation allows families to resolve disputes after separation in a cost effective way”

Those were the messages from a gathering of Mediators at Exeter County Court on 4^th December 2013.

The event was Exeter’s contribution to Dispute Resolution Week, which has been organised on a national level by members of the Family Mediation Council including Resolution and the Family Mediators Association. There have been events all over the country to remind families of the value of family mediation and the fact that Legal Aid is widely available for family mediation.

In the true spirit of mediation, 10 family mediation services joined together to host an event at Exeter County Court. The event was attended by many local Solicitors and other professionals who assist after family breakdown.  Guests of honour were Exeter’s resident family Judge, His Honour Judge Tyzack QC and District Judges Arnold and Waterworth

The participating mediation services were, in alphabetical order;

• Accord Mediation,
• Compass Resolution,
• Devon and Exeter Mediation Practice,
• Devon Family Solutions,
• The Family Law Company by Hartnell Chanot,
• Gilbert Stephens Mediation,
• Ian Walker Family Law and Mediation Solicitors,
• Magdalen Chambers,
• South West Mediation,
• WBW Mediation.

Several of these organisations have contracts with the Legal Aid Agency and a number take part in the mediator’s rota run at Exeter County Court, aimed at assisting parents in avoiding expensive and drawn out court cases.

His Honour Judge Tyzack QC told the packed audience;

“The Judiciary are very much in favour families resolving their own arrangements and we encourage all families to consider mediation before setting off on Court Proceedings.”

“Legal Aid is still available for mediation and for Legal Advice in support of mediation.”

“We are lucky to have such a broad range of family mediation services in Exeter. Exeter has long been one of the leading centres for mediation in the UK and we would urge families to make greater use of our mediators.”

***Ends***

 

Notes to the Editor:

 

There is a website for DR week at www.nationalfamilydrweek.org.uk

 

Family Dispute Resolution Week is a national awareness-raising week, to raise the profile of alternatives to court for separating and divorcing couples. Members of the Family Solicitors Organisation; Resolution will, across the country be carrying out activities to highlight family Dispute Resolution during the week. The other member organisations of the Family Mediation Council are encouraging their own members to participate in the week, and dispute resolution professionals from ADR Group, the College of Mediators, the Family Mediators Association, the Law Society and National Family Mediation are all getting involved.