Vouchers for mediation ‘will remove pain of court battles’

MORE than 10,000 people embroiled in divorces or civil disputes are to get vouchers for mediation in a bid to end bitter courtroom battles.

Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, will announce today that he will allocate an extra £5.4million to pay for vouchers to resolve family disputes without having to go through lengthy and costly court cases.

They will get £500 vouchers to pay for mediators to help them resolve their differences or online arbitration, where they avoid face-to-face contact that can often antagonise the situation.

It follows a £3.5million trial, where more than 8,400 vouchers were issued.

Ministry of Justice analysis showed that around two-thirds of the cases funded reached full or partial agreements away from court.

Mr Raab will say: “We are investing over £5million this year alone to help more families to resolve their disputes without the stress and trauma of lengthy courtroom battles.

“Mediation protects children, by removing the bitterness of parental disputes from the amplifying effect of a courtroom – and allows the family courts to focus on adjudicating cases with serious safeguarding concerns, including domestic abuse.”

Mediation involves couples dealing with their differences to reach agreements they are both prepared to accept, such as how to split assets or arrange child contact times, rather than have a judge decide for them.

The mediator helps participants to reach solutions tailored to their circumstances with many coming to agreements within two sessions.

One case, cited by the MOJ, involved two sisters in a row over what to do with their mother’s £1million flat left to them in her will. One wanted to sell it, the other preferred to rent it out.

A mediator met each sister separately before settling the dispute with one of the sisters paying the other half of the value of the flat.