Press Release - Legal aid and mediation for people involved in
family breakdown
2 March 2007
Too many family breakdown cases are going to court rather than
being settled through mediation, the National Audit Office has
today reported. Family breakdown cases which are resolved through
professional mediation are cheaper and quicker to settle. And
academic research shows that they secure better outcomes,
particularly for children, as they are less acrimonious. However,
only 20 per cent of people in cases which are funded by legal aid
opt for mediation, and over half go straight to the courts.
There is scope to improve the value for money of the legal aid
budget through increasing the take up of mediation in cases of
family breakdown. The National Audit Office found that, on average,
a mediated case takes 110 days to resolve, and costs £752 compared
to 435 days and £1,682 in cases where mediation isn’t used. In the
sample of cases it reviewed, the NAO found that over 95 per cent of
cases settled through mediation were resolved within 9 months and
all within 12 months. However, only 70 per cent of cases completed
by non-mediation routes were settled within 18 months.
Despite these benefits, take up of mediation in cases funded by
legal aid is low: currently 20 per cent. Between October 2004 and
March 2006, only 29,000 out of 149,000 people attempting to resolve
their family dispute tried mediation. This excludes some 30,000
domestic violence cases which would be unsuitable for
mediation.
Although solicitors and legal advisers have a duty to advise their
clients of the option of mediation, a survey of clients indicates
this isn’t always happening. In a survey conducted by the NAO, one
in three people who had been through a family breakdown case said
they had not been told mediation was an option. Of those, 42 per
cent said they would have been willing to try it. Use of mediation
rather than the courts would have saved the taxpayer £10 million in
these cases.
However, there may be a financial disincentive to solicitors of
advising people about mediation: if a case is settled out of court,
this will result in a loss of potential fees for them . The NAO
recommends that those solicitors who have significantly lower
numbers of cases which go to mediation should be investigated to
find the reasons for the low take up and, where these reasons prove
unsatisfactory, should have their contracts curtailed.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, said
today:
“One in three in our survey told us that they had not been made
aware that mediation was an option. The Legal Services Commission
needs to publicise the advantages of mediation and remove the
financial disincentives to solicitors of recommending this option
to their clients. Mediation can provide a less adversarial route
than the courts for many families involved in family breakdown and
result in savings in legal aid of over ten million pounds a
year.”
Notes for Editors:
- The National Audit Office study of mediation in cases of family
dispute and breakdown looked only at cases funded by legal
aid.
- Press notices and reports are available from the date of
publication on the NAO website, which is at www.nao.org.uk. Hard
copies can be obtained from The Stationery Office on 0845 702
3474.
- The Comptroller and Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, is the
head of the National Audit Office which employs some 850 staff. He
and the NAO are totally independent of Government. He certifies the
accounts of all Government departments and a wide range of other
public sector bodies; and he has statutory authority to report to
Parliament on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which
departments and other bodies have used their resources.
Press Notice 06/07
All enquiries to Mark Anderson, NAO Press Office:
Tel: 020 7798 7558
Mobile: 07796 937 119