Family Mediation Blog

 The government has announced it is ploughing more cash into a voucher scheme to keep more family disputes away from court - a priority of the current lord chancellor. Today's £1.2m cash injection comes five months after the Ministry of Justice allocated a further £800,000 to the family mediation voucher scheme, which was introduced last March...

Significant changes are coming to the UK family courts. The long-awaited implementation of no-fault divorce has allowed for less contentious divorce proceedings, and additional funding for mediation has provided another viable way to resolve disputes relating to children. One of the biggest changes to divorce law was implemented earlier this year, ...

The Government has announced it plans to improve the enforcement of financial orders in family matters. Each year thousands of separating couples obtain financial orders from the courts. These might include where a court decides partners must pay money to one another (for example, to support an ex-partner) or to transfer property to the other after a relationship breaks down. Sometimes these orders are not complied with.

Justice Minister Lucy Frazer has announced that the Government will bring forward measures to improve the enforcement system. The government will -

• provide new guidance for litigants so they know how to enforce their awards,
• amend or change the court forms so that debtors and creditors understand what is required of them,
• let debtors know the consequences of lying to the Court,
• streamline the system to cut down on unnecessary hearings where all are in agreement, and,
• explore amendments to the Family Procedure Rules 2010,

Still under consideration by the government are -

• giving the courts wider powers to obtain information from third parties, for example, banks and pension providers, about a debtor’s assets,
• extending existing methods of enforcement to assets such as pension savings and joint bank accounts, and,
• enabling courts to apply pressure on debtors who have the means to pay but are refusing