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Ministers are preparing to drop plans to force separating couples in England and Wales into mediation to avert courtroom battles, following widespread criticism from family dispute professionals.
The government had proposed imposing a requirement for couples to mediate in most cases before they took legal action over how to divide assets and time spent with children.
The plans were drawn up in part to reduce pressure on the family justice system. Lengthy delays mean proceedings involving children take an average of almost one year to conclude.
However, mediators and solicitors warned that while mediation sessions were helpful in the right circumstances, requiring couples to undertake them would be unworkable and in some cases harmful.
People with knowledge of the government’s thinking said it had listened to feedback on the proposals, which were put forward by former justice secretary Dominic Raab.
While stopping short of compulsion, ministers are keen to encourage separating couples to find common ground and find alternatives to court. Initiatives include a voucher programme that subsidises the costs of mediation sessions.
The government is encouraging the use of mediation across a broad range of legal disputes, including civil claims between businesses and conflicts between neighbours, in an effort to tackle long backlogs in the court system.
In the family courts, lawyers warned that children whose parents have separated are often left in limbo waiting for judicial decisions on their living arrangements.
Data published last month showed that by the third quarter of last year, the average duration of private family law cases involving children had almost doubled to 45 weeks since 2016.
As well as helping to address court delays, Raab suggested compulsory mediation as a way to prevent children from seeing upsetting arguments between their parents take place in court.
But the proposals were widely criticised, including by the Commons’ justice select committee, chaired by Conservative MP Bob Neill.
In a letter to justice minister Lord Christopher Bellamy KC last year Neill warned that “forcing families into mediation against their will” would “not serve the best interests” of children at the centre of the dispute.
Lawyers also warned that making mediation mandatory posed particular risks for survivors of domestic abuse. While the government said that abuse victims would not be obliged to attend sessions with their former partner, there were concerns over how they would be identified, as some victims do not raise a partner’s violence at the outset of cases for fear of reprisals.
The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.
