Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:57 pm  

As ever for a quick sin bin poll of expertise [prior to seeking professional advice of course ]
especially from those close to the legal arena?

A friend "escaped" from a physical and emotionally violent marriage a number of years ago, and moved to a different area of the country, she succesfully applied for legal aid at that time, and eventually [took around 5 years] got the divorce she was seeking, fast forward to now, and as her children have grown up and left the family house, she wishes to sell her half of the house and split the proceedings of her half among the children.

The husband, as during the divorce case, will fight this tooth and nail.

She again applied for legal aid [minimum wage earner part time as a support carer] but has been told that the rules have changed for LA applications, and all cases must first go to a mediation service where both parties have to be present, before a LA decision can be made.

So she is faced with either having to go back to her home town and face him, or worse, advise where she now lives and he is forced to travel there, in order that "mediation" [In what she does not know] about the splitting up of the assets can be discussed, and then if criteria have been met, get LA assistance to do so.
Her alternative in order to protect herself is to not proceed any further and let him take over the house as his own.

Surely there must be exclusions in place for LA applications when people would be placed at risk as a result?
I would have thought the mediation stages were well past during the divorce process?

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:16 pm  

Might not be a solution but wouldn't a solicitor offer an initial interview free of charge and then be the best one to advise what the next step should be ?

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:09 pm  

McLaren_Field wrote:

Might not be a solution but wouldn't a solicitor offer an initial interview free of charge and then be the best one to advise what the next step should be ?

Pretty much whats happened, she has recontacted the original solicitor who handled the divorce and he agreed to act for her again, lots of docs and background stuff was sent and a few calls back and forth, but then he found out about the mediation issue and the "recent" change required for LA.

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:23 pm  

There may be exemptions

There may be exemptions

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:20 pm  

The erosion of legal aid is worrying, particularly in crime.

I have heard of people pleading guilty, not because they have done it, but because they don't have the £5,000 they are being asked to fork out up-front to fund their defence.

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:09 pm  

cod'ead wrote: There may be exemptions Cheers coddy, I couldn't find a great deal when I searched, at least that answers the questions of what they now no longer will allow exemptions on, but even on that site I could not identify what were the exclusions that were left after the Nov 10 consultation. She will give their helpline a call and try to find out further.

cod'ead wrote: There may be exemptions Cheers coddy, I couldn't find a great deal when I searched, at least that answers the questions of what they now no longer will allow exemptions on, but even on that site I could not identify what were the exclusions that were left after the Nov 10 consultation. She will give their helpline a call and try to find out further.

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:24 pm  

The government is hell-bent on destroying legal aid, and indeed destroying access to justice for anyone except Russain oligarchs. You are all letting it happen, so they know they will get away with it, as an utterly apathetic public couldn't give a sh?t. Until they need access to justice, of course.

The Tories have just passed yet more swingeing cuts in access to justice, cunningly disguised in the NHS legislation, there was a rearguard action by lawyers and some peers with a conscience, but always doomed to failure with no public support.

Various governments have had it in for legal aid for many decades but if you spoke to anyone about it, it was always, "Rubbish, the lawyers are just bleating". Well, the chickens are already roosting in their thousands and it will get much worse, as Ken asshole Clarke is now on the home run with a wet sail.

[Durham Giant]

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:27 pm  

Mediation may not be neccessary in this case because of the issue of domestic violence. What needs to be done is make an application directly to the judge who can deal with it without the mediatio(n i believe) or alternatively the mediation service will deal with the matter WITHOUT the parties having to meet.

If this was a divorce issue about the children ie contact or resdidency legal aid would still be provided. As it is about the ancilliary matters that would rule out the legal aid.

To be honest most people can manage legal proceedings themselves in a lot of cases. The courts are now full of lipys ( litigants in person ) and to be fair seem to be very tolerant of them. In light of the history of DV etc they would be very sympathetic to her.

If their have been findings made against her Ex or injunctions etc then that would be prime facie evidence to justify some flexibility in the system to avoid putting her at risk. She needs to flag up very early the issue of the violence and the fact she still feels at risk from her Ex and MAKE SURE that she requests that her address is not disclosed and should be recorded as PROTECTED INFORMATION.

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:34 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Mediation may not be neccessary in this case because of the issue of domestic violence. What needs to be done is make an application directly to the judge who can deal with it without the mediatio(n i believe) or alternatively the mediation service will deal with the matter WITHOUT the parties having to meet.

If this was a divorce issue about the children ie contact or resdidency legal aid would still be provided. As it is about the ancilliary matters that would rule out the legal aid.

To be honest most people can manage legal proceedings themselves in a lot of cases. The courts are now full of lipys ( litigants in person ) and to be fair seem to be very tolerant of them. In light of the history of DV etc they would be very sympathetic to her.

If their have been findings made against her Ex or injunctions etc then that would be prime facie evidence to justify some flexibility in the system to avoid putting her at risk. She needs to flag up very early the issue of the violence and the fact she still feels at risk from her Ex and MAKE SURE that she requests that her address is not disclosed and should be recorded as PROTECTED INFORMATION.

See, all that makes perfect sens to me and you, but how the fsck is Joanna Public supposed to know and deal with this sort of stuff? Unless of course RLFans is now one of the replacement areas of free advice like CAB, or maybe she should JFG it.

Why shouldn't she be able to ask an actual lawyer, and why shouldn't that lawyer be able to claim the reasonable cost of telling her? Or, (radical, I know) actually helping her?

Re: Legal Aid - mediation requirement - logic? : Fri Mar 23, 2012 4:27 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote: See, all that makes perfect sens to me and you, but how the fsck is Joanna Public supposed to know and deal with this sort of stuff? Unless of course RLFans is now one of the replacement areas of free advice like CAB, or maybe she should JFG it. Does that mean RL Fannies are now part of Dave's Big Society? Ferocious Aardvark wrote: Why shouldn't she be able to ask an actual lawyer, and why shouldn't that lawyer be able to claim the reasonable cost of telling her? Or, (radical, I know) actually helping her? There may still be hope, it appears that changes are already being practised before the legislation is enacted. I wonder if anyone could get legal aid to challenge it?

Ferocious Aardvark wrote: See, all that makes perfect sens to me and you, but how the fsck is Joanna Public supposed to know and deal with this sort of stuff? Unless of course RLFans is now one of the replacement areas of free advice like CAB, or maybe she should JFG it. Does that mean RL Fannies are now part of Dave's Big Society? Ferocious Aardvark wrote: Why shouldn't she be able to ask an actual lawyer, and why shouldn't that lawyer be able to claim the reasonable cost of telling her? Or, (radical, I know) actually helping her? There may still be hope, it appears that changes are already being practised before the legislation is enacted. I wonder if anyone could get legal aid to challenge it?