LATEST 'LAW WATCH' VIDEO: KEEP ABREAST OF NEW LAWS

 In this month's free video, I go through-

• The increases in court, tribunal and probate fees which bite as from 01 May 2024 - and what happened to the threatened divorce fee hike.
• Changes to debt relief orders next month (effective on 28 June 2024) - the panacea for the amateur debtor - which make it easier to qualify.
• Increases in personal injury damages following publication of new guidelines.
• Why judges' gowns are back at the Central Family Court.
• The new so-called compulsory mediation system for county court small claims cases which will lead to any party refusing to co-operate being sanctioned at the end of the case and having to lose or pay one-half of costs that would otherwise have applied - if not worse.
• And that Book!

Enjoy.

LATEST VIDEO: THOU SHALT MEDIATE - BUT WHEN?

The Court of Appeal has now ruled that parties to civil cases can be compelled to mediate. Just a click away and find out more PLUS the legal position on mediation in family proceedings and changes there in the pipeline. 

Click below. It won't hurt.

CHILD DISPUTE MEDIATION: FREE £500 TOKENS FOR COST

Involved in a child dispute? Reckon there is a reasonable chance that the intervention of a trained and independent mediator may result in a settlement with the other parent and avoid a contested court hearing? The government has been dishing out tokens worth £500 a go to couples to pay the cost of this form of mediation or at least to go towards the cost where the arguments are about how much contact, whether your son should wear short or long trousers, whether he should be kept to a vegan diet, which school he should attend, whether he is watching too many box sets......   There is no means test:millionaires qualify. I wrote about the scheme at https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/2021/08/child-dispute-scheme-bolstered-500-on.html   

The hot news is that the government has just committed to make available tokens for another 2,440 couples and that should keep the scheme going to the end of March 2022 although my money is on  the scheme being extended, with more tokens being issued beyond then. It is claimed that since the scheme started, there has been a success rate of 77% which is commendably high although this percentage includes disputes where there has only been partial agreement. But don't worry. The courts won't be out of work.

CHILD DISPUTE SCHEME BOLSTERED: £500 on offer towards mediation cost: no means test

FOURTH 'RETURN OF BREAKING LAW' UPDATE

I looked at alternatives to court proceedings at chapter 09 of my book. One of the alternatives is mediation. That's the process by which somebody independent who has been trained in getting parties at war to settle disputes will apply their skills to hostilities between you and your opponent. Those skills sometimes extend to the connection together of the parties' heads until peace prevails. This is sometimes known as head bashing. 

One type of mediation covered by my book is the pilot scheme set up by the government to pay £500 towards the costs of a mediator assisting in couples reaching an agreement over a child dispute and to avoid it going to or continuing in court (see https://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/mediation). I predicted that if the scheme was initially successful then more money would be added to the £1m made available to issue vouchers to cover this £500 a dispute. 

It's happened. Yesterday 28 August 2021, the government announced the investment of a further £800,000 in the scheme which is sourced through a mediator conducting the information programme in which anyone wishing to take a child dispute to court must generally participate  before the case can be started.

The scheme does not involve a means test. It's open to millionaires.

CHILD DISPUTES: How to get £500 voucher towards mediation costs: England and Wales

A pilot scheme has just been announced by the Ministry of Justice in the hope of keeping you out of court on a dispute over the welfare of your child. Before starting court proceedings, you must generally participate in a mediation information and assessment meeting. They call it a MIAM so that nobody knows what is being talked about.That meeting might move on to you and the other parent going through mediation. It isn't compulsory but it's worth looking at. Trouble is that the mediator wants to be paid for trying to get you to reach an agreement at mediation. The government will now give you up to £500 towards the cost of the mediation which could follow the MIAM. A voucher for that contribution will be obtained by the mediator. 

But hurry if you can't agree on your child's school, where they should live, whether they should keep to a vegan diet and never drink a coke and if they should never be shown a copy of Breaking Law. Only £1m has been set aside to finance the scheme and that could run out fast though there is always the prospect of the scheme being extended if it is a success.

Very Latest Civil Procedural Rules

Two more updates to the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (applying to England and Wales) have been issued. This will save you having to read them. Switch on your yawnometer if you do. It could peak at 12 million before sending you completely into deep sleep. 

Update 110 amends Practice Direction 51O which is about the electronic working pilot scheme allowing for online commencement of proceedings and lodging documents. The scheme was extended  to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court on 01 January 2019 and  to out of London Business and Property Court centres on 25 February 2019. As from 07 October 2019 it will apply to proceedings in the Senior Courts Costs Office started on or after that date including requests for detailed assessment and applications issued on or after that date. Lawyers and litigants in person can take advantage. As from 20 January 2020 lawyers must use the scheme. 

Update 111 which came into force last Monday o9 September 2019 (at 11am) will be of interest to litigants in person. Honest. that's because it only relates to you. It concerns a pilot scheme for online civil claims by litigants in person for specified claims for money which do not exceed £10,00 and which, if contested, will almost always be dealt with as 'small claims'. New features have been introduced to the scheme for testing. These include parties being able to complete online the directions questionnaire - this is for contested cases and solicits information to assist the court in deciding when and where to list the final hearing and what procedural directions to give for it. And more cases which are suitable will be referred for mediation under the free small claims mediation scheme. Up until now , they have only been referred where the parties agreed. In future they will be referred where the parties say nothing about wanting mediation: they will be presumed to agree to it. But mediation is still not made compulsory. Silly not to take advantage of it. The scheme is extended to 30 November 2021.

There is another pilot scheme running for lawyers only. It is the swingingly called online civil money claims pilot and it offers a digital service for specified and unspecified claims on an invitation-only basis. The scheme is also extended to  30 November 2021.

Told you!

FINANCIAL ABUSE

Anyone who wishes to apply to the family court for a financial remedy (against their spouse on divorce, for example) or for an order relating to the welfare of a child, is generally expected to first attend a mediation information and assessment meeting with a qualified mediator. This is affectionately known to lawyers, mediators and those working in the family court as a MIAM. I wonder why?!

I reported in my 3 October 2016 post (see Family Mediation Changes) on the changes which came in to operation on that date on the exemptions to having to attend a MIAM. There's a  further and brand new one which now also applies and here it is. You are excused attendance where you can claim you have been the victim of domestic violence by your opponent within the previous five years in the form of abuse which relates to financial matters or that you are at risk of being such a victim.

FAMILY MEDIATION CHANGE

In family law,  there is much talk of MIAMs. Your solicitor (if you are lucky enough to have one) will tell you "But, you'll have to go on a MIAM, you know." And the court clerk will say "This is no good. Your MIAM documentation is missing. Go to the back to the bottom of the class."

A MIAM is a mediation information and assessment meeting which is a bit of a mouthful. So let's call it a MIAM for short! It's a meeting with a trained mediator at which info is provided about how parties to a family dispute can attempt to settle their differences through mediation and an assessment will be made about whether the dispute in question has any real chance of a mediated settlement. Ideally, both sides will go to a meeting and the dispute will be resolved which will please the court no end as it won't be troubled with proceedings.  But mediation cannot be forced on the parties and it's generally the party wanting to go to court who has to attend the meeting before starting proceedings.

MIAMs apply to most cases involving disputes over the welfare of children and applications in matrimonial proceedings for financial remedy orders (for maintenance, property transfer etc). There area load of exceptions to the requirement for a MIAM attendance: in particular, where the party wishing to go to court has been the subject of domestic violence by the other party. 

Up until now, something must have happened over domestic violence within two years of the case starting. In cases starting on or after 3 October 2016, that two years is increasing to five years.  And so, for example, a MIAM will not be needed where within the previous five years there has been a conviction for a domestic violence offence, a non-molestation order has been granted or the other party has gone a court undertaking not to use or threaten violence.