header-logo header-logo

31 July 2014 / Graham Lyons
Issue: 7617 / Categories: Opinion , Family
printer mail-detail

End of the line for mediation?

speakerscorner_lyons

Family mediation services are in decline & in need of urgent reform, says Graham Lyons

When I was in full-time practice at the Bar, my head of chambers refused to pay any membership fees to the Bar Council saying they did nothing that would help or change his legal practice. Many members of my present family mediation profession feel that the current family mediation organisations—including the ADR Group, the College of Mediators, the Family Mediators Association (FMA), National Family Mediation (NFM) and Resolution—and the umbrella Family Mediation Council (FMC) also do little to merit financial support. This is because much of the day-to-day work by most of those organisations focuses on providing expensive courses run mainly by a few family professional practice consultants (PPCs) who do little current family mediation work.

Pay gap

Since the late 1990s, top quality family mediators, ie those trained under the demanding Legal Services Commission (LSC) requirements, continue to be paid an amount negotiated in that decade which has barely changed. They and privately paid mediators

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
The winners of the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2026 have now been announced, marking another outstanding celebration of excellence, innovation, and impact across the legal profession
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
back-to-top-scroll