Assessing the availability of legal support through the ‘Help with family Mediation’ legal aid scheme
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12283687 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rachael Blakey (0000-0002-2763-2257, School of Law, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 82-103 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-02 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Social Welfare Law (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-8033 • E-ISSN: 1469-9621 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09649069.2024.2304977 |
| OpenAlex | W4391282361 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
The accessibility of legal support for private family matters has been devastated by decades of reform.At the time of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, legal advice supposedly remained available to support those in family mediation via the 'Help with Family Mediation' scheme.However, initial evidence suggests that lawyers rarely engage in the scheme because of a lack of financial incentives.Statistics on Help with Family Mediation are released every financial quarter, but have not been properly scrutinised in academic commentary or public policy.This article outlines findings from the first quantitative study on Help with Family Mediation.The study confirms that the scheme remains largely unavailable and has declined in use since 2016.It reveals that the scheme has dealt with a higher proportion of finance-related disputes over time, with more cases also resulting in a financial benefit.Statistical analysis then confirms a relationship between the type of dispute and whether an agreement is reached in mediation.The article concludes by highlighting the implications of these findings beyond their relevance to lawyers.Altogether, the study demonstrates a need for further research on family justice professionals, as well as family justice data, more widely
Business · Law and economics · Mediation · Political science · Scheme (mathematics · Sociology · Conflict of Laws and Jurisdiction · Dispute Resolution and Class Actions · Law · Legal principles and applications · Mathematics · Psychology
Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law
‘Mediators mediating themselves’
Where the wild things are
Mediation, financial remedies, information provision and legal advice
Scaling up research on family justice using large-scale administrative data
Lawyers and mediators
The impact of cuts in legal aid funding of private family law cases
Willingness to innovate in family law solicitor practice in England and Wales
Rising to the post-Laspo challenge
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |