Law Society president Nick Emmerson said legal aid funding for early legal advice ‘is the key to the government’s push to encouraging separating couples to mediate, many of whom will otherwise have to navigate the system without representation, adding further delay and distress.
‘Without action we will continue to see thousands of couples and their children unnecessarily caught up in the legal system and unable to move on with their lives’.
In the past decade the use of mediation by separating couples has fallen dramatically. Official figures for April to June 2023, released at the end of September, showed 4,700 fewer successful agreements compared to ten years ago (down 53%), 6,000 fewer case starts (down 46%) and 19,000 fewer assessments (down 62%).
Moreover, the number of private family cases involving children has surged 17% in the past year, to 97,098 in 2022/23 from 82,818 in 2021/22.
In the past decade, the percentage of people representing themselves in family cases has risen sharply, putting more pressure on courts and taking up more court time. This can be attributed to LASPO (the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012), which removed legal aid funding from private law cases in April 2013.
Emmerson highlighted that the government’s ambition of encouraging mediation has been undermined by its own decision to cut funding for early legal advice for family matters. He warned: ‘If the government is serious about tackling the backlogs and delays in the family courts, they must reinstate legal aid funding for early advice.’
