Parents thought to be unnecessarily clogging up the courts could face financial penalties under plans reportedly being drawn up by the lord chancellor.
Dominic Raab told the Conservative party conference last month that too many civil cases were going to court and he wanted to see alternative dispute resolution used more.
Yesterday, the Sunday Times reported that Raab is drawing up plans to keep cases away from court. These include making mediation the default process in most family law disputes and making it easier to award substantial legal costs against the parent thought to be abusing the court system.
The newspaper quotes a source close to Raab, who said: ‘Of the 50% of family cases that don’t involve domestic abuse, [Raab] is clear they should be resolvable without going to court and he has commissioned proposals as to how he can make that happen.
‘He is keen to make mediation the default. He is looking at incentives and disincentives to encourage parents to take that route. The exception is of course those cases involving domestic abuse or safeguarding issues. He thinks those should be kept under a judge’s purview.’
Family mediation was the government’s flagship solution to the removal of legal aid for most private family law matters in 2013. However, referrals nosedived:
Earlier this year the Ministry of Justice introduced a £1m voucher scheme to steer eligible families towards mediation. The scheme was topped up with a further £800,000 in the summer.
According to Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division, more than three-quarters of family cases eligible for the vouchers have been successfully resolved away from court.
A government call for evidence on dispute resolution closed at the end of last month.
A good idea in theory, but he hasn't learned from the removal of legal aid except where there was abuse - the result in that was (anecdotally at least), the number of cases involving abuse rose. Same will happen here, suddenly there will be a lot more cases where there are safeguarding issues.
Perhaps a simpler solution might be to strictly enforce existing orders, with strong penalties for not adhering to them - that would stop cases returning to court when, in theory, they've already been resolved.
