As civil litigators prepare themselves for the shock of the Woolf reforms at the end of the month, family law specialists have their own deadline for revolution to confront.

A government pilot scheme for family mediation is being extended throughout the country - with the exception of London - on 26 April.The basis of the plan - the 'section 29 pilot', whereby clients needing legal aid for family matters have first to be referred to mediation - is to direct less well off clients into mediation on all private law issues.The problem with the system is that it takes people away from specialist practitioners just when they need help.

Only those eligible under the green form scheme - currently capped at £83 per week income - can get help and advice throughout the mediation process.

This linked scheme is meant to cover those who are ABWOR-eligible but only kicks in once mediation has started, so there is still a gap when clients are left without advice unless they can pay privately.What solicitors and clients need in this situation is the concept of the limited legal aid certificate so that clients can be advised while they go through the mediation process.

All good mediators agree that there must be overarching legal advice to make mediation work.

But the Treasury is penny pinching, ostensibly using the notion of mediation as a panacea but in fact trying to cut out lawyers.

Ultimately, mediation often fails, or unworkable or unfair agreements result which often do not stand the test of time - or can be reopened by one or other party later as they are not (unlike consent orders) binding.The Legal Aid Board (LAB) mediation system is in itself inherently unsatisfactory from the point of view of clients, and will inevitably lead to their being shunted from one solicitor to another via mediators.

This will self-evidently lead to a waste of time and increased privately-paid costs for clients who by definition are in need of timely advice and are almost certainly in distress.The other problem that practitioners in London face is that green form rates are so low that the work is unremunerative.

Firms are currently being encouraged to think of exclusive contracting as an opportunity to take on more of this work, and we keep making the point to the LAB that it is for most firms in the south east something to avoid rather than something to seek.

To ask us to do more through this 'mediation linked' scheme is therefore even more of a problem.Now, in future only those specialist family law firms with a franchise are going to be able to do this work.

What that will mean for clients is that when they consult a franchised solicitor, that lawyer will have to refer them to a mediator.

If the mediator then accepts that mediation is suitable, the mediator would have to refer the client to a law firm operating the 'linked' scheme.

That in turn means that the client does not necessarily go back to the original solicitor although if and when the client gets to the point of being able to have legal aid they may well want to do so.

They will be confused to say the least and there may be disputes between solicitors over poaching.As I understand it, research shows that under the pilot people wander into and out of mediation without advice and this does not bode well for fair and proper settlements.

It also means that many then need to get legal aid and start all over again.

But the Lord Chancellor's Department (LCD) is not keen to acknowledge this.

As well as ignoring requests f rom the Law Society and Solicitors Family Law Association to sanction a limited legal aid certificate, the LAB and the LCD have also chosen to ignore the point that even under this linked scheme there will be no advice available before mediation when clients first need help.Both the LCD and the LAB should be aware that while many firms would be interested in contracting to provide support for family mediation, it should be on the basis firstly that it is available to all those potentially eligible for legal aid, secondly that it covers advice from the outset before mediation starts, and thirdly that it is properly remunerated.

The need for limited legal aid certificates is glaringly obvious.