Public Funds for Collaborative Law will help Courts become the Last Resort for more Divorcing Couples
.jpg)
"A Collaborative Family Law approach allows separating couples and their lawyers to sit down together to reach an agreement face to face in a much quicker, less traumatic process, that can provide a more satisfactory conclusion for all involved." so said Lord Bach, the justice minister in charge of legal aid, earlier this week.
The support from the Minister, for Collaborative Law, comes with the .gif){kind=logo}
announcement from the Legal Services Commission (LSC) that it is to consult for the first time on whether legal aid funds should be made available to separating and divorcing clients who choose to use the collaborative law dispute resolution process.
In addition to the benefits voiced by the Minister, Collaborative Law is seen by him as a process that will help settle a divorce without going to court. "The breakdown of a family is an extremely distressing time for all involved, particularly children, which is why I am determined that courts should be the last resort. Sadly that is currently not the case, with only one in five legal aid clients experiencing a family dispute opting for the benefits that mediation can bring”.
It will still be 1st October 2010 before collaborative law is added to the range of process options funded by the LSC. But it would then give all families, whatever their financial means, access to the same range of dispute resolution options offered by family law solicitors, when faced with separation or divorce. With the extended range that is affordable to more couples, Lord Bach will be further towards ensuring that the divorce courts are the last resort for many more families working through divorce.
Having practiced as a solicitor in the specialised field of Family Law and Divorce Court litigation for