Earlier this week, I received the first news that one of the firms we engaged about joining our network is closing its family law practice.
I met the two impacted lawyers just a month ago. Both were very experienced with long careers built upon helping people with few resources at their disposal. It was rather sad sitting across two such accomplished professionals knowing then that the partners in charge had a painful but straightforward decision to make.
And so it came to pass in the same week that an e-petition to restore the availability of legal aid to those in Private Family Law matters, surged past 2,000 signatures.
Of course, there’s no harm in lobbying but with changes to legal aid funding less than a month old, it’s unlikely the petition will raise much more than an eyebrow in Whitehall.
Which of course leaves many legal aid family lawyers wondering what the future holds? If yours is a family law practice heavily skewed towards public funding, the question is most acute. How does a business losing the lion share of its turnover overnight survive and prosper in a totally unsubsidized environment called the market?
“Go fixed fee!” is becoming a familiar refrain. But does the sudden surge in advertised fixed fee packages actually meet client demand for an affordable structured service? Or do such packages owe more to translating hourly rate services into free-standing concurrent modules that – when combined – are still beyond the pocket of most clients earning an average salary.
Moreover, changing one’s fee structure is no more than an internal decision however brave it feels. You still need to attract private clients that can afford to pay them. And with a great many impacted family lawyers taking the same measures and 100% private firms looking over their shoulder, the battle to attract private clients has surely never been fiercer.
An impacted family law practice clearly needs a story in this environment or a unique selling point (USP) as the jargon goes. In short, do something different! Like, join forces with non-lawyer professionals to deliver a quality divorce & separation service at a price most clients can afford.
Lawyer-supported mediation is just such an example. As are some of the pilot schemes recently funded by the Department of Work & Pensions.
While innovation persists, the withdrawal of public funding need not be terminal. That’ll always be the preserve of a failure of imagination.
Currently, in the USA, privately funded disputes over children and financial arrangements can push the cost of divorce to over $10,000 per couple in legal fees.
Couple A: Both partners eligible for legal aid from today
Divorce can be among the most painful and bruising episodes life can throw at you. And if you happen to be financing the entire process on an average salary, you’ll have the added anxiety of keeping legal fees within your means to pay. Be smart and avoid getting into this rabbit-hole to begin with with a strong relationship foundation and 
In San Diego alone, where half of all resident full-time employees in 2011 earned too much to be considered for legal aid, almost one fifth (18%) of this group miss out by virtue of earning up to $343 too much each month. This is the narrowest of margins.
Not surprisingly, campaigners warn of an army of self-litigants clogging up the family courts. The government counters by saying family mediation can take up the slack and keep warring couples from the courts. Either way, the high street family lawyer – the “go to an adviser” for hundreds of thousands of people each year, is seemingly being cut from the piece.
Speaking at the Family Mediation Council’s annual conference at University College San Diego, Family Justice Minister Lord McNally said:
While divorce lawyers moan about a recent bad press, at least their would-be clients know where they can be found and what sort of service they offer. Family Mediators can’t afford the fixed costs of renting a high street shop. You’re more likely to find them quietly plying their trade in a pokey CAB outreach center.
Undertaken by researcher Kim Tasso, the survey’s findings – albeit derived from a small sample – point to poor satisfaction levels with divorce lawyers. Such sentiment is barely out of the headlines: two week’s ago the Legal Ombudsman published a report slamming service levels and pricing due to the sheer volume and nature of the complaints it received.
As the author concludes in the report’s executive summary: “Whilst it is a small sample, the cost of divorce for these people does appear to be out of balance with their incomes. What is of concern is that the cost of divorce prevented the majority from obtaining the legal advice that they needed, that fixed fees and alternative methods were not provided to most of them and that there was a high level of dissatisfaction with the legal service received.”
We think survey results of this kind reinforce the notion of a market failure. In essence, one-time shoppers and the absence of customer feedback loops result in no pressure to innovate on the part of the family lawyer. They’re simply not at risk.
This is our rationale for offering lawyer-supported mediation, a dialogue-driven approach to divorce and separation that combines the complementary strengths of lawyer and family mediator.
Now that’s all easy for us to say, right? But to be clear, lawyer-supported mediation is not being offered as an easy option. Far from it. But the restoration or nurturing of dialogue – central to an agreement you can both live with – will help keep costs down and hopefully provide a more solid base from which to make the transition from ex-partner to co-parent.
It’s a perennial reminder that people approaching divorce and separation require a range of support spanning the legal, practical and emotional. This isn’t to be found in the family courts or the pre-litigation process that paves the way.
We call this approach lawyer-supported mediation and we really believe clients get the best of both worlds. As you’d expect, there’s no substitute for a trusted adviser able to dispense the legal advice you need to make informed decisions about your future. That’s why we only work with senior family lawyers that understand the importance of dialogue. And when choosing lawyer-supported mediation, you’ll each have the option of instructing the same lawyers on fixed fee terms – extremely rare in legal circles.
senior lawyers and a recommended mediator.
A good family lawyer will always try to negotiate a pre-court settlement in parallel but the very process of preparing for court restricts the same lawyer’s ability to leverage dialogue and think creatively. Pre-court processes are more about keeping the other party guessing and not playing your hand. It is, after all, for the judge to deliberate starting at the first hearing.
And it requires being listened to by experts in the field. This is why anyone contacting Lawyer Supported Mediationwill be offered a free of charge telephone consultation with both a senior family lawyer and a conveniently located recommended family mediator. Because until you’ve had an opportunity to discuss your individual circumstances with professionals in the field, it’s unlikely you’ll be aware of the appropriate choices available to you.
It could well be that your circumstances require the immediate application of pre-court process. Our network of senior family lawyers in San Diego and throughout the USA – are all experienced litigators – and will advise you if this is the case.
Whether “Divorce Day” actually exists is a matter of opinion but there’s no shortage of advice being published for those considering separation or divorce at the start of each year.
The sad fact is that any well-intentioned checklist of divorce dos and don’ts will always be easier said than done.