One Couple One Lawyer Recognised As A “Huge Shift” For Family Law At The Resolution Conference
Resolution is a group of family lawyers, and other professionals, that promotes a non-confrontational approach to resolving family disputes. Resolution members come from many professional backgrounds, including solicitors, legal executives, barristers, financial planners and family mediators. There are currently over 6,500 members.
Each year, Resolution hosts an annual conference which took place this year on 19th May. The keynote speech was given by the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, and Barbara Mills KC, the Vice Chair of the Bar Council for 2024, which represents over 17,000 barristers practising in England and Wales.
In his keynote speech Sir Andrew McFarlane stressed that the “Supporting earlier resolution of private family law arrangements” consultation launched by the Government in May is “a moment in time” when the government are engaged in the discussion which won’t come round again. He urged practitioners to get involved and respond, as the way people start their journey is often the direction of travel they will take throughout proceedings: beginning in an adversarial manner will result in that sentiment being carried throughout the process.
Echoing the words of Sir Andrew McFarlane, Barbara Mills KC followed adding that family courts are overwhelmed. There are, she said, 110,000 open family cases of which 86,000 are private cases, with an average case taking 12 months to finalise. Providing a clear call to action to delegates Barbara Mills KC said that cases must, as far as is possible, be kept out of the courts. Acknowledging that legislation has been slow to keep pace with changing society, she invited the profession to make a more concerted effort to resolve cases outside court using the options available, including arbitration and One Couple One Lawyer, which, she said, represents a “huge shift”.
Asked later in the day what delegates thought would be the predominant way of resolving private family disputes in 10 years time over 1/3rd of the room (37%) responded by saying solicitor negotiation, 33% said mediation and 11% said court. And asked directly about One Couple One Lawyer, 72% of the room said they are either already doing the work (17%) or planning to in the future (55%). 12.5% responded saying they have no intention of offering the service.
When we launched our One Couple One Lawyer service, nobody else was doing it. It’s fantastic to see that now the vast majority of family professionals want to do it and agree with us that joint legal advice will play a pivotal role in the future of Family Law.
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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