family disputes and the use of mediation

The Government has been signalling for some time that it wants to see greater use made of mediation in family law and to see a move away from the traditional use of courts to deal with issues where no agreement between parties is possible.

This has taken a step towards being realised with the announcement that, from 6 April 2011, it will no longer be possible to make an application to court for orders relating to children or financial matters without the parties involved first having undergone an assessment to see if the issue can be resolved by mediation.

This represents a fundamental sea change in the approach to family disputes and it is likely that there will be far greater use made of mediation in the future. Of course there will always be cases where mediation is not appropriate for people and in those instances we will continue to use traditional methods including collaborative law to help our clients through difficult times.

Fiona Wilson, who is head of Blake Lapthorn's Family law team in London and a mediator, says: "Mediation has always been a service we have offered and we have long recognised the benefits of people being able to use the services of a mediator to help reach agreements with each other at the time of separation or indeed for many other family disputes, such as where a Will is being challenged.  We look forward to using this opportunity to offer additional services for our clients which we hope will be of huge value for them".