Thousands more divorcing parents will avoid painful and costly courtroom fights after the size of a federal mediation program was more than doubled.
An additional £5.4 million in financing will assist even more families in resolving issues outside of court, such as child contact agreements.
Divorcing couples are given £500 mediation vouchers under the scheme in order to help them discover mutually accepted solutions and free up space in the family courts. It aims to save parents and their children the stress and expense of frequently lengthy and bitter litigation battles.
The scheme has proven a success, with approximately two-thirds of cases finding complete or partial settlements outside of court.
The funding announced today (3 June 2022) more than doubles the initiative’s investment since its inception in March last year, which now stands at £8.7 million.
It will provide around 10,200 extra vouchers for mediation services, in addition to the 8,400 already distributed.
Dominic Raab, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice, stated:
We are investing over £5 million this year alone to help more families to resolve their disputes without the stress and trauma of lengthy courtroom battles.
Mediation protects children, by removing the bitterness of parental disputes from the amplifying effect of a courtroom – and allows the family courts to focus on adjudicating cases with serious safeguarding concerns, including domestic abuse”
Mediation is frequently a faster and less expensive technique of resolving disagreements. Rather than having a judge decide for them, it includes couples working through their disagreements – supervised by a skilled and accredited mediator – to establish agreements they are both willing to accept, such as how to divide assets or schedule child contact hours. The specialized mediator assists participants in reaching solutions appropriate to their specific situations, with many reaching agreements within two sessions.
The Family Mediation Council (FMC), which runs the scheme, has conducted preliminary research that shows positive results. According to survey data from the first 2,800 completed cases using the vouchers, 65 percent reached a whole or partial agreement outside of court, while the remaining 3 percent merely visited court to formalize their agreement. It also revealed that without the financial incentive provided by the scheme, half of the participants would not have attempted mediation.
Mediation sessions would generally be invoiced for without the vouchers, unless one of the parties is eligible for legal assistance.
If a case is eligible for vouchers, the mediator will automatically request reimbursement from the FMC. The new financing will extend the initiative through March 2023.