Graham Coy is right to say that solicitors need to recognise that each family’s case is different and requires its own solution. Unfortunately for solicitors, however, divorce and parenting disagreements are not really legal issues. They are more often social matters, often with significant financial consequences. The neutral, impartial processes offered by mediators, financial coaches and family consultants offer greater opportunities for better outcomes, more swiftly and less expensively, than most of the services offered by solicitors.

 But all is not lost. As a family mediator, I estimate that over 95% of my clients are not being adequately supported by their solicitors. If more solicitors took the trouble to properly understand mediation, to work together to refer clients mutually, and to properly support their clients through the process, their clients would value them for it. Solicitors could charge for providing the service. At the moment, it seems to me that solicitors would rather do nothing to support their clients simply to keep their clients’ bills down. This has a discernible effect on outcomes.

If solicitors do not learn to work more closely with mediators, mediators may start looking for ways to cut solicitors out of the loop completely. With barristers chipping away from the other side, there is a great deal for the profession to be concerned about.

 Stephen G Anderson, mediator and neutral solicitor, Ipswich