For those of you interested in the research evidence about the usefulness or otherwise of mediation, you might like to consider the research by clicking on the link above.

Take time to read the research and then make your own decision. Simply listening to and following the Government propaganda that mediation is quicker, better and cheaper may not prove to be true for you.

Clearly, some involved in mediation would wish for everyone to believe that mediation is best because they wish to make a living out of being a Mediator. Indeed the very same people expect others to refer clients to them rather than competing for the instructions in the first place. The Government is sold on the benefits of Mediation because it suits the agenda of cutting legal aid.

Unfortunately recent articles have shown that Government reforms of legal aid in relation to women and domestic violence  have failed to deliver.

The rise in litigants in person, unaided by legal advisers, has created more problems for the Courts than the cuts in legal aid were supposed to promote: http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/oct/18/essex

The main problem with the cuts to legal aid is that the Government has failed to understand the role that legal aid plays in the Justice systems. They are looking at legal aid as if it is separate to the Justice systems. This is the equivalent of the NHS cutting the cost of blood without thinking about what blood is needed for in the NHS. The obsession with legal aid high earners is really a smokescreen to reduce access to Justice for annoying, little people and annoying little people lawyers who challenge the decisions of the important people who,after all, know best. The ConDems don’t like others to challenge their power or that held by their friends.

Prisoners and “criminals” are an easy target for a prejudice based assault on the weak and vulnerable.

The ConDem cuts will lead to greater cost, greater chaos and more frustration as the disconnect between citizen and the powerful grows even wider.