Family courts across the North West are at risk of being overloaded by warring parents as new government figures reveal more than half of all parties contesting child-related cases are now without lawyers.
The huge rise in self-representation is a result of the removal of legal aid from family lawyers in April 2013. Since then the proportion of parents from the North West representing themselves at court to contest contact and residency arrangements has surged from 38% to 57% of litigants.
Between April and December 2012, 4,701 people represented themselves at court for child-related proceedings. In the same nine-month period for 2013, the figure ballooned to 7,417. This is a 58% year-on-year rise – the second highest in England – and already more than the previous year’s total of 6,594.
Publication of the Ministry of Justice figures – secured via a Freedom of Information request – coincides with the Manchester launch of LawyerSupportedMediation.com: a new divorce & separation service designed to keep warring parents from the courts.
Spearheaded by North West law firm Stephensons Solicitors, Lawyer-Supported Mediation is being made available across Greater Manchester by over 30 divorce lawyers from eleven participating law firms.
Mike Devlin, head of the 90-strong family law department at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, said: “The massive increase in people representing themselves is leading to huge delays at court as judges struggle to help people representing themselves understand the proceedings and what is happening.
"Often people find that decisions go against them because they’ve not been able to refer the judge to the relevant legal points of their case. They can end up getting emotional and not representing their cause in the best possible way.
“To respond to this crisis in representation the legal industry has to completely rethink how best to serve clients which is why affordable approaches such as Lawyer-Supported Mediation are so timely.”
Marc Lopatin, trained family mediator and founder of LawyerSupportedMediation.com said: “The answer is not putting lawyers back in the courtroom at the public’s expense. Instead, the government should be doing all it can to encourage lawyers and mediators to work in tandem. This is the only way to make available the support parents need at a price most can afford.
“Telling separating families to simply ‘mediate don’t litigate’ is not working. Mediation numbers have collapsed by almost a third in Manchester since the government drove a wedge between lawyers and mediators in 2013. People need lawyers to feel secure and to provide advice so decisions being taken at mediation are informed.
“The alternative is still more parents heading to court and goodness knows how many lopsided kitchen table deals are being done where one party is selling themselves short.”
In 2012/13, over two-thirds of separating couples beginning family mediation went on to reach agreement.* To encourage the take-up of family mediation, the government now insists the party taking legal action against their former partner first attend a mediation awareness meeting.
*Source Ministry of Justice:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-mediation-laws-to-help-separating-couples
For the latest facts about divorce, see Office of National Statistics Infographic:
http://bit.ly/1n4UV4z
ENDS
Media information:
- Lianne Tracey at Stephensons Solicitors LLP, call 01616 966 229 or email: lct@stephensons.co.uk.
- Marc Lopatin: Founder, LawyerSupportedMeditation.com 033 0223 1188 / 07739 186640