Speech By President Of The Family Division Highlights The Divorce Surgery’s One Couple One Lawyer Service
The President of the Family Division has once again used his platform to encourage divorcing couples to resolve the legal and financial aspects of their separation away from the Family Court.
In his recent speech at The University of Worcester, entitled ‘When families fall apart, do they fall too easily into court?’, the President listed the many different services available to separating couples away from court litigation, which include:
“One couple, one lawyer: as a result of the amendments made by the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020, which allowed couples to make a joint application to end their formal relationship by divorce or partnership dissolution, there is now a market for legal advice to be given on the ‘one lawyer, two clients’ (or ‘one couple, one lawyer’) model. ‘The Divorce Surgery’, an early entrant into this field, is an arm’s length agency run by two members of the Family Bar. For a fixed fee, which varies depending upon the type and complexity of the issues, the Surgery will appoint a barrister to meet with the two parties, absorb the relevant detail from each about their circumstances, and then deliver advice as to the likely outcome if the contested issues were to be litigated before a court. The model is applied to issues relating to both finance and children. Resolution, which is the umbrella organisation for Family Law Solicitors, has now launched its own one lawyer-one couple scheme (‘Resolution Together’) meaning that this option should now be much more widely available throughout the country.”
We are of course delighted to get a shout out from the most senior family judge in the country, but more importantly the increasing number of One Couple One Lawyer providers shows that sharing a lawyer has become accessible and normal.
As the President concluded:
‘Those who have heard me before, or read my recent speeches on this topic, will know that I am very keen for there to be much greater provision of resources to support separating parents to resolve issues without coming to the Family Court. There is, however, no need to wait for any change. I hope that what I have described during this address has more than demonstrated that there are many different options that are already in place to assist parents to sort any issues out in a much less acrimonious setting, and more swiftly, than coming before a judge or magistrate in court proceedings.’
You can read the full speech here: Worcester Lecture 2022
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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