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Mediation is a good idea. It works. It leads to less stressful divorces, financial settlements and arguments over children. But the clients have to find their way to the "idea" of mediation - which most people know nothing about, and, having come to terms with mediation as a concept they have to be put in touch with a mediator. Before LASPO in 2013 that was successfully achieved by Legal Aid lawyers who were seeing divorce clients and the numbers of mediations had increased enormously. After LASPO clients could not access Legal Advice as the majority of divorce work was out of scope. So we had the ridiculous situation where the Gov`t wanted more mediations but its own cuts to scope precluded that from ever happening! Lets bring back Legal Aid for early advice in Divorce matters. That will enable the idea of Mediation to take off and it will save a fortune in contested hearings, court time and Judicial time. Its not rocket science. Lets come to terms with the fact that Mediation is a relatively new idea nad people have to be pointed in its direction. That's what lawyers do.