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
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…)
I reproduced below the speech given by Minister of Justice Simon Hughes MP at this week’s Family Mediators Association (FMA) annual conference.
You can also find it reproduced at Link to Simon Hughes Speech at FMA Conference.
Simon Hughes talked optimistically about whether compulsory Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings have led to an increase in family mediation. The speech was delivered before this week’s release of updating statistics (which are with my last posting) and sadly it would seem that whilst compulsory Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings have led to an increase in the number of mediation information and assessment meetings (MIAMs) they do not yet appear to have led to an increase in the number of successful mediations. We will have to look out for the next batch of statistics.
He also states that the proposal for a free mediation meeting for both of a couple where only one of the couple is eligible for legal aid will be coming soon. The original announcement was that this was going to be in the autumn. What Simon Hughes says below is that;
… the Statutory Instrument which will bring about this change will be signed and laid before Parliament in a matter of weeks with implementation approximately 21 days after that.
A matter of weeks to me is at least three or four. If he meant in the next couple of weeks he would have said this or he would have said in a matter of days. If we are then looking at a further 21 days beyond this, we are looking at this change to the legal aid scheme for Family Mediation not being implemented until early November at the earliest but more likely mid to late November or possibly December.
This uncertainty and (more…)
The Ministry of Justice has today published its latest statistical bulletin on the take-up of Legal Aid. This is not just Legal Aid for Family Mediation but also for Family Law and Crime. Below is a link which opens the statistics in PDF format.
Ministry of Justice – Legal Aid Agency – Statistics Bulletin – April to June 2014
The Statistics show in graphic detail the reduction in the numbers able to access Legal Aid since the changes which came into effect last year. Access to the initial level of Legal Aid remains steady but this is limited by the number of cases that Solicitors with Legal Aid contracts are allowed to start. Overall it does appear that there is an ongoing downward trend in the number of Legal Aid Certificates granted for court proceedings in family cases following a massive drop after the legal aid changes of last year. This is worrying what was left of legal aid was supposed to be there to assist those who needed protection or who had suffered domestic abuse.
I have reproduced below one of the tables from the statistics bulletin. These tables cover the numbers of assessment meetings for family mediation as well as the number of mediation cases that have been started and then successfully concluded.
This practice has a legal aid contract for family law for our Honiton office. As a family mediation service we are contracted with the Legal Aid Agency to provide family mediation in Honiton, Exeter and Taunton and from a few further outreach locations. We are the only family mediation service which has a contract with the legal aid agency which is actually based outside of Exeter and in East Devon which makes us particularly convenient for clients who live in locations such as: Sidmouth, Seaton, Axminster, Ottery St Mary, the Blackdown Hills, Cullompton, Chard and surrounding villages.
The way in which legal aid is currently structured is that all those who are no longer able to get legal aid to consider the arrangements for their children or financial issues after separation and divorce can still get funding for family mediation instead. Legal aid is then available for legal advice in support of the mediation process after the mediation has started. This means that following the legal aid changes of 2013 there should be more mediation cases taking place. The statistics show clearly that that is not the case. I have blogged previously about the crisis in family mediation.
The statistics show that the number of assessment meetings undertaken by mediators in order to see whether mediation can take place has after a fall started to rise. Unfortunately this would not seem to have translated into more joint meetings/full mediation processes starting or to more mediation cases reaching settlement. This is worrying indeed.
At the same time we are being told that the numbers of persons Applying to the Court for court orders (without legal representation) has/is increasing. Perhaps therefore the increase in assessment meetings is only tied to the compulsory Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings and has nothing to do with any increased desire or commitment on the public to give mediation a try.
I have recently blogged on the government announcement to support there being a first proper mediation meeting that is free to both of a couple, provided that one was financially eligible for legal aid. This should help. Unfortunately we are still waiting to know when this new system will come into effect! The change needs to be introduced sooner rather than later.
As a Solicitors Practice and Family Mediation Service, we are lucky that we are not entirely reliant upon either family law or family mediation or legal aid to be able to offer a viable and cost-effective service. Indeed we continue to be able to offer our legal services on an hourly charging rate which is below the comparable rate for solicitors with a similar level of experience. We have the benefit that we can offer our clients all of the different process options and they can choose the best way to proceed for them. We are lucky that we have had growth in all areas of our work and will shortly be announcing the next step in the growth of our service. Watch this space!
Here is the family mediation graphic:
The basic idea is for the Family Court to be an amalgamation of the Family Proceedings Court and the County Court. This will provide for hopefully better administration for family justice and cases being managed in a more fluid and hopefully speedier way.
There are a number of other changes coming into force on 22 April 2014 as well.
As I outlined in previous postings, 22 April 2014 will also see the abandonment of Residence Orders and Contact Orders.
Instead of Residence Orders and Contact Orders, we will have Child Arrangement Orders. My own view is that this is a good thing, as this will encourage parents to focus upon the needs of their children and less upon their disputes with each other. (more…)
As you know we are part Solicitors Practice and part Mediation Service. As a Family Mediation Service we are currently undertaking Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings, or MIAMs in Honiton, Taunton and Exeter. Our Legal Aid Contract with the Legal Aid Agency allows us to provide Legally Aided Mediation from a variety of locations including Honiton, Exeter and Taunton.
On Friday 12 April we received an email from the Family Mediators Association (FMA) containing the the new version of the C100 Court Form and Practice Direction for how Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings or MIAMs which will apply post 22 April 2014. So here they are:
The New C100 Application Form
Practice Direction 3A extracted: MIAMs
Or, if you dont want to open the Practice Direction Doc, then this is what it says:
From this date provisions from the Children and Families Act 2014 will come into force. Amongst the provisions are amendments to the Children Act 1989, which will replace Residence and Contact orders with Child Arrangements Orders
Before the Children Act 1989 came into force the court orders, which defined where the child lived and the arrangements through which a child saw the other parent were called Custody Orders and Access Orders.
Language is very important. (more…)
Here is a link to the relevant part of the Gov.uk website
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications-and-reports/FamilyCourtGuide/PrivateLaw
To save time, here is a PDF to the plan and a PDF of the procedural flowchart.
draft-child-arrangements-plan
draft-flowchart-child-arrangements-programme
The Private Family Law Work Group is looking to keep cases out of Court and to encourage parents to resolve their own issues.
The Legal Aid Agency has a significant presence in the Private Family Law Work Group
The Legal Aid reforms have failed in encouraging people to mediate because (more…)
