Mediative, co-operative justice would benefit all parties and protect the legal aid budget, says David Burrows
In the week that, in this country, legal aid was 60 years old and mediation a mere 30 NLJ had at least four articles on, or relevant to, mediation.
Two family lawyers—family lawyers are to the fore of mediation efforts in this country—led: James Pirrie on collaborative law matters, while Geraldine Morris of LexisPSL and Resolution (a group of family lawyers) explained the fundamental principles of mediation.
Joy Davies looked forward to the next 20 years of “civil and commercial mediation”, and the law reports covered AF v BG [2009] EWCA Civ 757, [2009] All ER (D) 249 (Jul) which gave impetus to the settlement ethos under Civil Procedure Rules 1998 Pt 36—technical objections to an offer were overridden by the court (see NLJ, 31 July 2009).
Family mediation all began with Report of the Committee on One-Parent Families, 1974 (the Finer Report).
The report referred to “conciliation” in family disputes; so as part of our local Finer Joint Action Group we set about attracting professionals involved in family
