Thursday January 17, 2013 at 9:00am
It has been announced that £10 million more of taxpayers’ money is to be allocated by the Government to help people divorce more easily. There’s an early January headline to warm the cockles of your heart. It came around so-called divorce day, the legendary busiest period for divorce lawyers which always comes in January. Just a week or so earlier, we had people saying it was too easy to divorce, but now the Government wants to make it even easier. How? By subsidisi....
Tuesday May 8, 2012 at 9:00am
I’ve decided to muscle in on Andrew’s blog (again) and pick up on the theme of litigants in person where he left off last week (Rise of the DIY Divorce).
The first point to flag is that, as name changes are in vogue, people who decide to represent themselves in court are no longer to be referred to as LIPs (Litigants in Person) but rather SRLs (Self Representing Litigants). I can’t quite see what purpose this serves but the fact remains that whether they are L....
Monday April 16, 2012 at 2:00pm
It comes as no surprise to me, and I am sure many others will not be raising an eyebrow at this either. A Resolution survey coinciding with the end of the first year of mediation assessment meetings reveals they are not working as they should be. This is not news. The figures are interesting though.
It was only a few weeks ago when I gave some thoughts on the first year of mediation (A year of mediation, are things any better?). Of course it has been around longer than th....
Monday March 19, 2012 at 9:00am
A year seems to go by very fast these days. Yes, I know it is an age thing, but I thought things slowed down when as you got older rather than speeded up? This time a year ago we were anticipating a long hot summer, something promised again by the weather forecasters. Excitement was growing about the first British royal marriage in years as William and Kate prepared to walk down the aisle. And the era of compulsory mediation was upon us. In a bid to help keep divorcing couples out of costly cour....
Monday January 16, 2012 at 9:00am
So what will be new in family law for 2012? What trend will be “in” for the year? It’s difficult to know really. After so much happened, comparatively speaking, in 2011, it is difficult to see there being any additional big moves for 2012. It is more likely to be a year of consolidation, as the management speak goes.
In 2011, we had the long-awaited Family Justice Review which arrived with an apologetic whimper, introducing the Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings ....
Monday October 10, 2011 at 9:30am
There are few areas of life that remain steeped in tradition and still practised as they were several decades ago. For most people, times change and things move on. It could be argued that law is one of the areas most resistant to that change, for many of the reasons I have mentioned in previous blogs. Firms run by non-business people, a reluctance to make it easy for people to pay, or use emails to send documents and make agreements, or insisting on face-to-face meetings in high street office....
Thursday September 15, 2011 at 10:00am
The likelihood of Legal Aid reform continues to be a big issue. Cuts of up to £350 million in the system would see the option of Legal Aid removed for many people in divorce proceedings, with victims in domestic abuse cases, for instance, among a very small group of people who will still be able to seek help with funding. The profession has voiced fears that the measure is being railroaded through despite strong opposition in a public consultation. The aim is to cut costs, as is the rece....
Thursday May 5, 2011 at 10:00am
A month on from April 6 and I’m sure you all felt the disturbance in The Force as the new Family Procedure Rules came into effect. No? These are the guidelines that it is hoped will see thousands more divorcing couples trying the mediation route to reach a settlement rather than simply assuming they will see each other in court to thrash out the details of their split. Still a bit vague? You won’t be the only one. There is a suggestion that, though well intentioned, the changes may h....
Thursday March 31, 2011 at 10:00am
ADR seems to be a new buzz word in family law at the moment. Alternative Dispute Resolution has been mentioned much in context of family mediation, as mediation is an example of ADR. However, an alternative route to mediation is collaborative divorce. I’ve talked about collaborative family law a number of times before but I think in the current climate there has been some confusion around collaboration, mediation and ADR, so it is worth mentioning again. A big difference between collaborat....
Tuesday March 22, 2011 at 10:00am
I’m picking up on a theme from last week again if I may. It is a topic that is here to stay and, as April 6 looms ever closer, the more we can understand about the impact of the New Family Law Procedure Rules 2010, the better. I think people do have a perception that the law is, more often than not, black and white. Guilty/not guilty. Divorced/married. It follows therefore that lawyers should all be very clear on what the rules are and how they should be applied. But when changes are intro....
Tuesday March 1, 2011 at 10:00am
Mixed feeling this week about the news that more couples are to be told to try mediation before going to the courts to settle their divorce details.
Issues like the division of assets are better dealt with through couples agreeing to speak to trained mediators to thrash out a deal rather than using up costly court time. From April, couples who are in dispute about their matrimonial finances will be pushed towards mediation.
Now on the one hand, I would agree that a lot of unnecessary court....
Friday December 3, 2010 at 2:31pm
I blogged a few weeks ago about a wonderful resource from Cafcass called the Separated Parents Information Programme. This programme and its accompanying brochure is a mine of information on a range of issues, mostly but not exclusively related to children and how they are affected by separation.
Among the many topics covered is that of family mediation and whether or not it is a viable alternative to court. I thought it was a good issue to pick up on bearing in mind the Family Justice R....