We are pleased to announce that our new branch office will be opening on 01.02.12 at 46a West Street, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1TZ, from where we will be offering a range of services including Civil & Commercial Mediation, Fixed Fee Divorce, advice and representation in Children disputes and Child Care Proceedings. Legal Aid will be available to eligible clients in Child Law Family cases. Our telephone number there is 0845 250 1802 (Local call charges apply).
We will be sharing office space with Albin & Co. Solicitors, a firm that specialises in Criminal Law and Mental Health Law. For more information about them please see their website at: www.acsolicitors.co.uk
Our Head Office premises are in Braintree town centre from where we continue to offer a full range of Family & Children Law advice and Civil & Commercial Mediation services.
For full details and directions see the 'Location and Contact Details' tab above.
We continue to provide Public Funding in family & children cases to eligible clients.
Staff News
Boyd Carter is pleased to announce that Miss Emma Reid, a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, joined us on 18th April 2011. Emma has a wealth of experience in family and matrimonial cases, and is complementing our existing services by focusing on Divorce and Financial Remedy matters, Emergency orders and residence and contact disputes. Emma has returned to Braintree having previously worked in the town before moving to a firm in Westcliff-on-Sea. Emma is providing a limited number of free 30 minute advice sessions each month, subject to availability. Please contact us by telephone on 01376 555000 or via the Email page of this website to book your appointment.
New Family Procedure Rules
These came into force on 6th April 2011 and codify the old Rules that used to apply in the different family Courts and were located in several different Regulations. All Rules are now in one place and there are detailed Practice Directions that set out what needs to be done, how and when. In addition many Court Forms have been redesigned.
There are a few major changes in that all family cases are now subject to an Over-riding Principle and there is a new Pre-action Protocol that applies in all cases, save in exceptional matters which are defined in the rules and supporting documentation.
In the vast majority of cases, Applicants must, at the same time as issuing Court Proceedings, complete a Form certifying to the Court that they have already attended a Mediation Assessment and Information Meeting, usually at their own cost unless they are eligible for Public Funding, in which case some central financial assistance may be available from a limited number of providers who have a specialist Family Mediation Contract with the Legal Services Commission.
Jaw-jaw not war-war: why more may try to settle disputes outside court
As courts close and legal aid is cut, is this the moment that alternative dispute resolution finally takes off?
The justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly, has said he wants all divorcing couples to be briefed about the option of mediation before they go to court. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA
Going to court is a stressful and costly pastime for all concerned, not helped by the extra pressure on the system caused by the imminent closure of 142 courts as part of government cuts. So will alternative dispute resolution (ADR) finally take off? Or do couples (and lawyers) want their day in court?
ADR comes in various forms, such as arbitration – where a third party "judges" the case in a less formal setting than a court – and mediation, where a third party helps the sides resolve their differences. The concept of ADR has been familiar since the 1990s but the story has not changed in that time. Those who do it, like it, but getting them to do it in the first place is the hard part and only relatively small numbers have.
While the Ministry of Justice's enthusiasm for ADR is not new and so not solely driven by the need to save money, it is putting greater emphasis on non-court resolution, especially mediation. The justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly, has also linked ADR to the notion of the "big society" and placing more control in people's hands.
Most family cases will no longer be eligible for legal aid under coalition plans but funding for mediation (by which the ministry means all forms of ADR, including collaborative law) survives.
How to make better use of mediation is also part of the family justice review commissioned by the justice ministry and Department for Education. National Audit Office figures from 2007 indicate that mediation in legally aided family cases on average costs a quarter of the price (£1,000) and takes a quarter of the time (110 days) of going to court. These figures could be slightly misleading, suggests Suzanne Kingston, a member of the ADR committee of family lawyers group Resolution, as less acrimonious cases may more readily go into mediation in the first place.
Currently, most divorcing couples who receive legal aid have to attend a meeting to learn about mediation before they can go to court, a requirement which government figures indicate has been quite successful in steering them into the process, usually with positive results. The irony is that the legal aid cuts will take this useful step with them.
Djanogly said recently that he wants all divorcing couples to go through a similar process, a move Kingston supports, although how he will achieve it without the stick of legal aid funding is not clear. And it seems the government would ideally like parties to mediate before reaching lawyers. But not understanding the legal "parameters" of their situation would reduce the effectiveness of the process, argues Kingston.
Away from family law, the ministry will publish a green paper on civil justice reform this spring that will give greater priority to mediation. This should include an improved version of the government's pledge to use ADR whenever possible – which it estimates saved £90m in 2009 – in an effort to encourage local authorities and businesses to follow the lead, and a push to increase the number of people using the national small claims mediation service.
There is a plethora of mediation services, providers and helplines, and the Ministry of Justice would do well to bring greater order to the market, while online dispute resolution is a largely undiscovered country. But the government's central task is likely to be increasing awareness of ADR: forcing parties into it breaches the right to fair trial under the European convention on human rights.
The legal profession's broad support for ADR only goes so far. Some might say this is self-serving, but lawyers insist it is in the public interest. In a recent speech, the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger, cautioned that "too great a faith in [ADR's] benefits may result in the creation of a partial system of justice." Research on whether expanding ADR would benefit both parties and the state was, he said, ambiguous.
Indeed, there are fears that the government sees ADR as a replacement of – rather than alternative to – the courts. Neuberger said confusing ADR with a cheaper equivalent to the civil justice system would be a "profound constitutional mistake".
Nobody argues that some cases have to end up in court come what may, but most people in a dispute just want to get on with their lives. When it comes to litigation, jaw-jaw has got to be better than war-war.
We continue to provide Legal Aid in all family matters where clients are eligible.
For a discussion about your eligibility for these schemes, please contact Boyd Carter direct by telephone on 01376 555000, by email at bc@boydcarter.co.uk, by fax on 01376 359207 or via the Email page of this website.
If you are not financially eligible for any of the Legal Aid schemes, a more cost effective and less confrontational way of trying to resolve your dispute would be to talk to us about the benefits of Mediation and whether or not your case is one that could benefit from our Mediation Service, where Boyd Carter will be happy to be appointed as a private independent mediator to try to facilitate a settlement in Children Act disputes between parents themselves, with other family members and, in accordance with the Public Law Outline, with local authorities within or prior to Care Proceedings being commenced. Please contact Boyd on 01376 555000 to discuss your case, its suitability for mediation and the likely costs.
Commercial Mediation
The Civil Procedure Rules, case law and the civil pre-action protocols all encourage parties to disputes to try mediation preferably before a Court claim is started, so the benefits of a successful mediation can be achieved before the stresses, expenses and troubles of litigation set in.
The government Green Paper on Civil Justice Reform due out this Spring is expected to make further recommendations for the increased use of Mediation as a first step in the resolution of Civil and Commercial disputes. If the recent Family Law proposals are taken as an indicator, then in the majority of cases an attempt at mediation will be required before Court proceedings can be commenced.
At present, if you fail to mediate or properly engage in the mediation process, you are very likely to be penalised by the Court making costs orders against you, that is you being ordered to pay some or all of your opponent's legal costs or the Court refusing to order your opponent to pay some or all of your legal costs, irrespective of the outcome of your case. This means that there can be a real possibility of you winning your case and having to pay some or all of your own and your opponent's costs out of the money you recover, making the whole process far less worthwhile and possibly an economic disaster.
Given the present financial climate, it will therefore be extremely advantageous for you to seek to mediate a dispute rather than to instruct solicitors to pursue or defend a matter through the Courts, as mediation is likely to be cheaper, quicker and assist you in reaching an outcome that will help your business to survive and maintain important relationships.
Boyd will also be happy to be appointed as a private independent mediator to try to facilitate a settlement in Children Act disputes between parents themselves, with other family members.
You can still make use of mediation even if you already have a solicitor acting for you or you are already involved in a Court case - just instruct your solicitor to contact Boyd Carter, give them our details or get in touch with us yourself and keep your legal costs down!
We have our own mediation suite at our offices in Braintree town centre, where you and your opponent can meet to participate in a mediation in a comfortable, neutral and completely non-judgmental environment. Boyd can also provide a mediation service by telephone or by email.
For a discussion about your needs and how we can help you, please contact Boyd Carter direct by telephone on 01376 555000, by email at bc@boydcarter.co.uk, by fax on 01376 359207 or via the Email page of this website.
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