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Assessing the availability of legal support through the ‘Help with family Mediation’ legal aid scheme
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Blakey, Rachael (2024) Assessing the availability of legal support through the ‘Help with family Mediation’ legal aid scheme. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 46 (1). pp. 82-103. doi:10.1080/09649069.2024.2304977 ISSN 0964-9069.
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WRAP-assessing-availability-legal-support-through-‘Help-with-family-Mediation’-legal-aid-scheme-Blakey-2024.pdf - Published Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0. Download (677Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2024.2304977
Abstract
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.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law | ||||
SWORD Depositor: | Library Publications Router | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law | ||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||
ISSN: | 0964-9069 | ||||
Official Date: | 27 January 2024 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 46 | ||||
Number: | 1 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 82-103 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1080/09649069.2024.2304977 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 3 April 2024 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 3 April 2024 |
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