Oh dear.  Nearly every mention of mediation in the media makes the same mistake, and now the Ministry of Justice is making it too.

Announcing today an extra £10 million of Legal Aid to support mediation, the Ministry says:

“In recent years a greater number of people have been successfully using mediation – where they are helped to agree the issues between themselves rather than argue it out through lawyers with a judge taking the final decisions.”

This is wrong.  The main alternative to mediation is to reach agreement by means of a civilised negotiation between solicitors.  Far more disputes are settled that way than by mediation.

In financial cases, if the couple agree that they want the court to make an order incorporating the terms of their agreement, the draft order has to be scrutinised by a judge to check that it is fair to both parties.  That is not the same as “…a judge taking the final decisions”.  Only 6% – six per cent, for heaven’s sake – of all financial orders in divorce cases are made by a judge following a contested final hearing.  All the rest – 94% – are made by consent.