When a child’s parents separate arrangements will obviously have to be made for the child to see both of their parents, whether sharing their time between the parents, or by living with one parent and having contact with the other.

But most children do not just spend time with their parents. They will normally also spend time with other extended family members, in particular grandparents. And the separation of the child’s parents may disrupt the time that the child spends with their grandparents.

This can be especially so if the child lives with just one parent, for example the mother. In such a situation the paternal grandparents may find themselves ‘shut out’ of the child’s life, particularly if the father is having little or no contact with them.

But parental separation should not mean the end of a relationship between child and grandparents. After all, grandparents can play a very important role in a young child’s life.

Thankfully, there are steps that grandparents can take to retain contact with their grandchildren after parental separation. In this article we will look at those steps, including the way in which the law can be used to assist grandparents.

Practical steps

We will begin by looking at the practical steps that grandparents can take towards visitation rights, without involving courts.

The first thing is obvious, but may not be easy: discuss the matter with the child’s parents.

There are various scenarios here. The child may live with the parent who is not your child, the child may share its time with both of their parents, or the child may live with your son or daughter.

We will begin with the last of those options. Hopefully you are on good terms with your son or daughter and you can discuss the matter with them. In most cases they will of course be happy for you to see the child and, unless there is any objection by the other parent, that will be the end of the matter. Practicalities of when and where any contact will take place can easily be agreed.

If, on the other hand, you are not on good terms with your son or daughter then obviously things may be different, although you should still attempt to agree matters with them, if possible.

Next is the scenario where the child lives with the parent who is not your child. Again, you should attempt to agree matters with them, if possible. Obviously, there is a possibility that they will not be prepared to speak to you, but it is still worth trying, as agreeing matters can of course save everyone the trouble and stress of having to go to court. You may also be able to see your grandchild when your own child has contact with them.

The third scenario, where the child shares its time with both of their parents, can be slightly trickier, depending upon whether the contact sought impinges upon the time spent by the child with a particular parent. But again, the advice is the same: you should attempt to agree matters with that parent, if possible.

There is of course one other scenario, which we have not yet mentioned: where the child’s parents have not separated, but simply do not agree to grandparents having visitation rights. This can be the most difficult scenario of all, and it may well be impossible to discuss matters with the parents.

In all scenarios, if there is implacable hostility to you having contact with your grandchild then the reason or reasons for that hostility will obviously have to be addressed, whether by direct discussion with the parent(s), through mediation (see below), or within court proceedings.

Mediation

Even if you cannot agree matters directly with the parent(s), you should not necessarily give up and go straight to court. There are other ways to agree contact with your grandchildren, in particular via mediation.

Mediation is a process whereby you attempt to resolve the matter by agreement, with the assistance of a trained mediator.

Mediation is an entirely voluntary process, and can only therefore take place if the parent (or parents) agree. However, they are more likely to agree if they understand that the alternative could be stressful, and possibly expensive, contested court proceedings. In other words, it is in their interests just as much as yours for the matter to be resolved by agreement.

Court proceedings: the law

A grandparent can apply to the Family Court for an order that they have contact with their grandchild in the same way as a parent can apply for a contact order, with one exception: the grandparent will first have to obtain the leave (or permission) of the court to make the application.

In deciding whether or not to grant leave the court will have particular regard to the nature of the proposed application (i.e. what kind of contact the grandparent seeks), the grandparent’s connection with the child, and any risk there might be of the proposed application disrupting the child’s life to such an extent that they would be harmed by it.

In practice, it is very rare for a court to refuse grandparents leave to apply for visitation rights with their grandchildren, as the law recognises that grandparents can play an important role in children’s lives. The granting of leave will therefore be a formality in most cases.

Once you have got over the hurdle of obtaining leave, your application will be decided by the court using very similar principles as would be used in an application by a parent.

In short, the court will decide what order to make, if any, by reference to what it considers to be best for the welfare of the child. In doing this, it will take into account a number of factors, including:

1. The ascertainable wishes and feelings of the child concerned, considered in the light of the child’s age and understanding. Accordingly, the older the child is, the more weight the court is likely to give to their wishes.

2. The child’s physical, emotional and educational needs, such as special health needs, or special educational needs.

3. The likely effect on the child of any change in their circumstances – i.e. the change that a contact order would bring.

4. The child’s age, sex, background and any characteristics of his or hers which the court considers relevant.

5. Any harm which the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering as a result of the court making, or not making, a contact order.

6. Lastly, how capable the grandparents are of meeting the child’s needs.

Court proceedings: the procedure

The procedure on applying to the court for contact with a grandchild usually comprises the following steps:

1. Before you make the application you will normally first have to attend a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting ‘MIAM’. The purpose of a MIAM is to see whether the case is suitable for mediation. If the case is not suitable for mediation, or if mediation takes place but is unsuccessful, then you can proceed with the application.

2. Making the application, and applying for leave. These things are normally done simultaneously, as leave is usually a formality, as mentioned above.

3. The court will fix an initial hearing, called a First Hearing Dispute Resolution Appointment, or ‘FHDRA’. If the case cannot be agreed at this hearing the court will give directions as to what should happen next. In some cases the court will appoint a Children & Families Court Advisory & Support Service (‘CAFCASS’) officer to investigate the case and prepare a report, usually including a recommendation as to what order the court should make.

4. There will then be another hearing, called a Dispute Resolution Appointment. The purpose of this hearing is to see if the case can be settled by agreement.

5. If the case cannot be settled by agreement a final hearing will take place, at which the court will hear the evidence, and decide what order to make.

What will the court order?

As mentioned above, the law recognises that grandparents can play an important role in children’s lives. The court will therefore normally order that the children have regular contact with the grandparents, unless there is a good reason why the grandparents should not be granted visitation rights.

However, the amount and frequency of contact will not usually be the same as between a parent and child. As usual, there are no hard and fast rules – the contact ordered, if any, will vary from one case to another, depending upon what the court considers to be best for the welfare of the child. It may also depend upon whether the child has contact with the grandparents’ own child, and whether the grandparents see the grandchild during that contact.

As a very rough guide, one might for example expect direct contact between grandparent and child to take place, say, once a month, as against something like once a week between parent and child. There might also be indirect contact, for example by telephone, or text messaging, plus of course the exchanging of cards and presents at Christmas and on birthdays.

Conclusion

The above is of course just a brief outline of the law and procedure regarding grandparents visitation rights. If you are unable to agree contact with your grandchild then you should seek expert legal advice. We can provide you with the advice you need and, if necessary, represent you through the court process. To speak to one of our specialist lawyers, complete the form on this page.

Divorce can be a daunting prospect, especially if there are issues regarding finances, property, and arrangements for children to sort out. Naturally, most people faced with the prospect will want the assistance of a family law solicitor, to advise them and guide them through the process.

But what if they can’t afford a solicitor? Can they get legal aid to help them with the solicitor’s fees?

Legal aid cuts

Until 2013 the answer to the question was simple: yes, you could get legal aid for divorce (and everything else connected to it), subject to your means.

Sadly, all that changed in April that year, when the government removed most private law family matters (i.e. matters not involving social services) from the scope of legal aid. As a result, the number of people accessing family legal aid was reduced by about 80 per cent.

The other effect of the change was that many family law solicitors gave up doing legal aid work, making it more difficult for people to find a legal aid lawyer, even for those few matters still covered by legal aid.

So what matters are still covered?

There are only really two main areas where legal aid is still available that are likely to be relevant to anyone going through divorce: in connection with mediation, and where there has been domestic abuse. (Legal aid may also be available in cases of child abduction, if your human rights are at risk, or if you’re at risk of homelessness.)

Legal aid for family mediation

If you have issues regarding finances, property, and arrangements for children to sort out then you and your spouse may choose to go to family mediation, whereby a trained mediator will help you try to resolve matters by agreement.

Indeed, if you need to ask the court to sort these things out you will usually first have to attend a Mediation Information & Assessment Meeting (often referred to as a ‘MIAM’), at which your case will be assessed for its suitability for mediation.

But mediation isn’t free: the mediator will charge a fee for their services, which is usually shared between the parties.

When the government cut legal aid in 2013 it hoped that many of those people who could no longer get legal aid would take their cases to mediation, rather than go through the courts. Accordingly, the government decided that legal aid should remain available for mediation.

Legal aid for family mediation is means-tested. It is only available to those on a low income, or who are not working.

If you are eligible, legal aid will cover all of the costs of mediation, including all sessions with the mediator, the drawing up of an agreement by the mediator, and (if required) the cost of having a solicitor turn the agreement into a legally binding court order.

Legal aid in cases of domestic abuse

You may also be entitled to legal aid if you or your children have been the victim of domestic abuse.

Domestic abuse is defined to include physical or sexual abuse, violent or threatening behaviour, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse (i.e. behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on a person’s ability to acquire, use, or maintain money or other property, or to obtain goods or services), and psychological, emotional or other abuse.

If you wish to apply to a court for a non-molestation or occupation order to protect yourself from domestic abuse then legal aid is available, subject to means.

And legal aid may also be available (again, subject to means) to cover other matters such as sorting out finances and arrangements for children, if you can provide specified evidence that you have been the victim of domestic abuse, for example evidence that the other party has been arrested in relation to a domestic violence offence, or a letter from your GP stating that they have examined you and found injuries consistent with you being a victim of domestic violence.

We can help

For more information on how divorce affects property and finances, including whether you might be forced to sell your house, check out our detailed article here. To explore whether it’s possible to divorce without a solicitor, read our detailed guide here. If you’re considering the financial implications of a divorce, you might also be wondering how long the entire process will take; for more details on the timeframe, check out our article on how long a divorce takes in the UK.

If you’re seeking support through the emotional and practical challenges of divorce, you might also find our Divorce Support Club helpful for additional guidance and resources tailored to your needs. For a comprehensive approach to your divorce, including navigating financial settlements and ensuring fair outcomes, you might find our detailed financial settlement services beneficial.

In 2013 the Government removed the availability of legal aid for most private law family matters (i.e. matters not involving social services). Now, legal aid in private family law matters is generally only available if there are issues of domestic abuse, or to cover the cost of mediation.

But almost all other types of private law family matters are not covered by legal aid, including in particular cases between parents involving arrangements for children, and financial remedy disputes on divorce, where domestic abuse is not an issue.

Needless to say, this has meant that many people have had to deal with these cases with the serious disadvantage of having no legal advice or representation. Some have even chosen not to take their cases to court, rather than have to face court proceedings on their own.

This two-tier justice system is clearly unfair to those of limited means, so it was interesting to see what the House of Commons Justice Committee had to say in a report they recently published, looking at the future of legal aid.

The future of legal aid

The Committee took evidence from a number of expert witnesses, and also received more than 80 written submissions.

The Committee confirmed that: “legal aid is critical to the fairness of the justice system, enabling those without sufficient financial means to participate on equal terms with those that can afford representation.”

The Committee say that legal aid is in urgent need of reform, both to protect the fairness of the justice system and to ensure that the most vulnerable can have access to justice.

One of the biggest problems identified by the Committee is the lack of early legal advice – a number of witnesses to the Committee emphasised that the limited scope of civil and family legal aid means that individuals with legal problems are not able to access advice early enough to stop their problems escalating.

With reference to family matters in particular, it was said that early advice can enable lawyers to explain the process and to provide a “reality check” on what might be achieved by going to court. Early advice can also help to divert cases away from the court, for example towards mediation.

And early advice can also help make the courts operate more efficiently, by ensuring that only cases that need court intervention go to court, and that the issues requiring determination by the court are limited to those relevant to the outcome of the case.

The Committee welcomed the introduction of the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, which offered mediation participants a financial contribution of up to £500 per family towards the total costs of their mediation in disputes over arrangements for children. The Committee said that the scheme is a positive step, which recognises that more needs to be done to help separating parents. They say: “We believe that if early legal advice was available alongside mediation, this would result in an increase in the numbers using mediation successfully.”

The Committee says that a possible model for an early advice scheme would be the “family law credit” scheme, as proposed by Resolution, the association of family lawyers, in 2015. The credit would enable someone that meets criteria for legal aid for family mediation to have “an initial meeting with a family lawyer to help them gather evidence they need in order to access legal aid, or to discuss their options”.

The Committee also made other recommendations, including simplifying the means test in those types of case where legal aid is available, and more support for people who have to go to court without a lawyer.

One thing that is quite clear, however, is that there will be no return to the pre-2013 availability of legal aid for most private law family matters. Early advice would certainly be a great help for many, but without full legal representation it is difficult to see how the justice system will be fair for all.

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…

Legal Aid

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.

Specialist Quality Mark

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

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.

Resolution Mediation PPC forum

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.

Only 800 accredited mediators are registered with the FMC – and I’m one of them

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…)

Successful Mediations

In the last of months I have successfully mediated a couple of cases where the answer to this was starkly illustrated.

In the first case, the couple had instructed solicitors from London and the South East. The couple had assets of several million pounds, including a number of properties and other investments. In less than 12 months they had between them accumulated legal costs exceeding £20,000.

In the second case, the couple had significantly less resources, but in a period of six years since separating they had accumulated between them legal costs of in excess of £25,000.

No financial agreement had been reached in either case. No applications had been made to the Court asking for a Financial Orders either. There had been a lot of letters written. Financial documents had been exchanged and in one case there had been a meeting between each client with their Solicitors; but no agreement.

As a solicitor, my philosophy is always to explore whether a case can be resolved quickly and amicably. If this is not possible then an application should be made to the Court. Negotiations can continue, but if there is no agreement, the Court will make a decision. I seek to avoid drift. When the final agreement/order is achieved there is finality and the costs stop.

But Mediation is quicker than a Court process. In the above mediation cases we found a solution to all outstanding issues in two and three joint meetings. All four of my clients were very pleased with the outcomes and these were completed for a fraction of the costs they had already incurred, and for a fraction of their likely costs should be cases have proceeded to Court. (more…)

On 20 August 2014 the government published a document called “A brighter future for Family Justice”

This describes itself as “a round up of what’s happened since the Family Justice Review”

Here is a link to the full document which can be downloaded from the government website. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/346005/family-justice-review-update.pdf

Free Mediation Meetings

There is not a lot that is new in this document, the publication of which, coincided with an announcement by the Minister Simon Hughes to make the first actual mediation session free of charge to both parties provided that one of them could prove they were eligible to receive legal aid. I published a post about that announcement yesterday which included a link to the relevant press release.

Faster Child Law Cases

Amongst the data contained within the first part of “A brighter future for Family Justice” were statistics showing that real progress was being made in completing childcare cases if possible/normally/(unless there is an exceptional reason why not) within a 26 week period.

These type of cases routinely used to take over a year to complete. (more…)

Below is a press release from the Family Mediators Association/FMA on the subject of meeting with children as part of the mediation process. the FMA press release is in response to a recent change in government policy.

I myself, am a member of the FMA and served for a short spell on their board of governors. I also a mediator who is trained to meet with children as part of the mediation process. The training that I undertook to be able to do this was through the family solicitors organisation Resolution, but was led by Lisa Parkinson, who was one of the founders of the FMA and who is a very well-known and respected mediator.

As a solicitor, I have been a member of the Law Society Children Panel or Law Society Child Law Panel, as it is more correctly known these days, since 1996. This means that I have represented both children and parents in complex court cases brought by social services and involving every permutation of child safety issue that you could possibly think of, over a very long period. I am also accredited by resolution as an expert on domestic abuse.

I agree with the idea that where appropriate (more…)