Statistics have recently been released which suggest in excess of 19,000 more parents appeared in civil Courts without expert legal representation in cases relating to their children in the 12 months that followed the Legal Aid cuts in April 2013.
Prior to April 2013 those who could not afford to pay a Solicitor to help them deal with Court proceedings relating to arrangements for their children could get financial assistance from the Legal Aid system.
The Ministry of Justice made Legal Aid cuts in April 2013 and at that time stated that going to Court should always be a “last resort”. There is no doubt that that was a reasonable statement and something that any reasonable family law Solicitor would echo. However, in reality figures now show that the number of cases that have been referred to the Court relating to children disputes has actually risen during the 12 months following the withdrawal of Legal Aid.
There can be no doubt that this results in part at least from the fact that, with the assistance of Legal Aid many parents would have had help from a specialised family Solicitor to try to reach agreement without going to Court. They would have been given advice as to what might be the outcome of Court proceedings and what a reasonable way of resolving their dispute would be. Many cases that would otherwise have gone to Court were prevented from reaching that stage by skilled Solicitors funded by the Legal Aid Scheme. Following the withdrawal of Legal Aid that first tier of assistance has disappeared for the vast majority of parents.
When withdrawing Legal Aid the Government had hoped that parents would decide to attend family mediation to resolve their issues. Legal Aid remains available for family law mediation. Unfortunately the numbers of parents attending mediation has also fallen drastically since April 2013. This again would be due in part to the fact that clients are not accessing good expert legal advice from qualified Solicitors at the outset. Those Solicitors historically would have referred clients to mediation. There is little public awareness of what mediation is or the fact that Legal Aid is still available for it.
Whilst the Government funding of mediation has increased the actual spend has decreased due to lack of take up.
As Head of the Family Law Team here at Taylor & Emmet I have been keen to try to raise awareness of family mediation. Our sister company Hallam Mediation continues to provide legally aided mediation services across South and West Yorkshire. My family law Solicitors continue to provide Legal Aid where it is available, for example in cases of domestic abuse, but where Legal Aid isn’t available we work closely with clients to try and help resolve their problems as quickly and in as cost effective way as possible.
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