Partner Tasha Bevan-Stewart, in our Family Law team, looks at the out of court dispute resolution methods that are now commonplace in Family Law.
In April 2024, the Family court system strengthened the rules that require Family lawyers to consider out of court methods when advising our clients.
Due to an ongoing backlog in the court system, it has generally become quicker and easier for clients to explore options that don’t involve contested court hearings. There are substantial delays built into the court process which can be avoided when opting for out of court methods.
Increasingly, many clients prefer this approach anyway, as it can help to manage their costs and it removes the need to attend court hearings alongside a former spouse, which can sometimes be stressful and upsetting.
What options do you have when seeking to resolve Family Law matters outside of court?
- Mediation: is perhaps the best-known route, but not the only way of dealing with the legal aspects of relationship breakdown. Mediators don’t offer advice, but they can help you to reach a non-binding solution with the other person by facilitating discussions between you both. A mediator will then refer you to a lawyer for advice to finalise the settlement.
- Collaborative practice: involves each client appointing a lawyer, and then those lawyers work co-operatively with each other and with financial advisers or therapeutic professionals to support you to reach a resolution. On-hand legal advice is provided in meetings with both clients. Importantly, collaborative working can result in a binding agreement being drafted by the lawyers involved.
- One-Couple: this relatively new option involves one lawyer advising both people in the divorce on their legal, financial and child arrangements. This method is suitable for couples whose views are mostly aligned, and who are seeking to minimise conflict with one another. Their joint lawyer can draft the agreement and help with the process of submitting that agreement for judicial approval, which is required if you wish to have a formal financial agreement in place upon divorce.
- Arbitration: in this private adjudication process, an independent arbitrator is appointed jointly by both parties to the divorce and asked to decide the issues, which may be financial or childcare-related. This essentially replaces the court process, but is swifter and more efficient. Most Family Law cases can be arbitrated privately, but there are some important exceptions – please talk to us about this for further information.
- Private FDRs: this is a bespoke method of negotiation, where lawyers for each side present their case to a neutral evaluator who will give a non-binding opinion of the case. Their input is designed to steer people towards agreeing an outcome by consent, rather than having an outcome imposed on them by a court or arbitrator.
Please talk to us if you are interested in finding more about these ways of adopting a lower conflict approach to Family Law matters.
For further information or legal advice, please contact law@blandy.co.uk or call 0118 951 6800.
This article is intended for the use of clients and other interested parties. The information contained in it is believed to be correct at the date of publication, but it is necessarily of a brief and general nature and should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific professional advice.
