Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results
A pilot scheme making family mediation available at court to legally aided parties in disputes involving children has cost more than expected and achieved modest settlement rates, the Gazette has learned.
The Legal Services Commission funded a six-month project from July to December in the Family Procedure Courts and County Courts in Birmingham, Sheffield, Milton Keynes, Reading and Plymouth. It did not make mediation compulsory, but made mediators available at court on days where family cases were listed for an initial assessment of suitability, if the judge and Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) felt it should be attempted.
However, preliminary results from the LSC show that settlement was achieved in less than a third of cases.
During the six-month project, 224 cases began. Of the 163 cases that proceeded to mediation, 28% settled, 24% narrowed the dispute, and 27% progressed to further mediation away from the court.
Nationally in 2008/09 there were 13,552 family mediations, in which 68% reached full or partial settlement.
The LSC said an initial evaluation showed that although the service cost more than anticipated, it encouraged more people to mediate, with clients in 44% of cases considering mediation where they would not previously have done so.
Sara Kovac-Clarke, head of family policy at the LSC, said the cost of the pilot was being analysed, but the LSC would need to work out how to make it more cost-effective.
Explaining the comparatively low settlement rate she said: ‘We’ve had feedback that suggests court is not the best place for mediations to take place.’
The LSC will decide by the end of February whether a revised version of the scheme should be rolled out nationally, after feedback has been obtained from the judges, mediators and CAFCASS and a full cost assessment made.
Last year the LSC spent £13.8m on family mediation, which it claims saved the legal aid fund approximately £10m.
Meanwhile, a survey carried out by the Civil Mediation Council showed widespread support for its moves towards accredited training for mediators, the establishment of a register of mediators and clear quality standards.
Comments
mediation costs
So it cost over £3 million more to administer the scheme than it saved! How many people could have been helped using this huge sum of money. Also I would question the effectiveness of a partial settlement using mediation. Most solicitors achieve this or the narrowing of issues in any event. Over the last ten years in ancillary relief we have had only three cases which the local mediation service were able to settle. However, in each of those cases the settlement agreed was hopeless from our clients' point of view and we had to start again to get them the level of settlement that they should have had. In the hundreds of other cases that we have referred mediation has failed. Usually after a delay of weeks. Thus on all of those other cases there is a duplication of legal aid funding and a considerable delay for clients. Most solicitors that we have spoken to have had similar experiences with AR mediation. There is a much greater success rate with childrens issues. However, even then we have seen cases come to court where mediation has failed but a Cafcass officer, or indeed our solicitors, have succeeded in reaching a settlement at court during the first appointment. I have not seen the situation improve at all since clients on legal aid were forced to attend mediation before being able to issue proceedings. All I have seen in most cases is extra cost to the state and extra delay for the client. As they say you can force a horse to water but...... Jacqueline Emmerson.
Family mediation pilot achieves mixed results
It’s a very short article and there are issues that need to be made clearer:
• the mediators are not trained to a high enough level to be really effective, and certainly they are unable to either detect or deal with the "loonies" (the implacably hostile) who inflict so much harm upon the children as they fight it out over many years.
• the ongoing involvement of the family lawyers is usually unhelpful – mediation is robbing them of their revenue stream after all. There are no sanctions for refusing to mediate.
• a 28% settlement rate in hostile courtroom surroundings is not be sniffed at.
• how much money did the 28% save the court service - where did this £3m figure come from quoted by Jacqueline Emmerson??
In short, I think given all of the above, the results are actually positive given the zero development that has been attempted in terms of exploiting the potential of mediation and raising the quality of mediatiors.
Naturally the Law Gazette isn’t run by mediators or read by people with no commercial interest in benefitting from conflict.
QED.
Bill Yeemes
Parental success is at 6% in
Parental success is at 6% in Family Law cases. How much does this mediation or tactic delay
cost the tax payer stop all the theatrics and torture just take the children you choose