Welcoming a Government announcement of increased funding for some forms of civil legal aid, Stephen Burke, Chair of the Family Mediation Council (FMC), said:
“This is an encouraging first step on the road to rebuilding civil legal aid, and could set the scene for a much needed boost to legal aid rates for family mediators which have been frozen for over 20 years.
“Recent changes to the Family Procedure Rules have accelerated the need for these reforms, since the rules require separating couples to consider mediation or other means of dispute resolution before going to court.
“The FMC looks forward to continuing its representations, on behalf of family mediators, to Ministers about these issues.”
The Ministry of Justice statement outlining the increase in civil legal aid funding can be found here.
