But this is not their fault, as shown in the National Audit Officereport Legal Aid and Mediation for People Involved in Family Breakdown(Children Now, 7-13 March). It found a third of people involved infamily law cases funded by legal aid are not told by their legal adviserthat mediation is an option, despite having a duty to do so. This meansfamily mediation providers are only working on 20 per cent of the casesthat qualify for public funding.
"A lot of people don't know what mediation is, which is our bigproblem," admits Robey, who has been a mediator since 1996. But shebelieves it is a successful way of sorting out a myriad of issues, fromaccess down to the family's assets. "The feedback we have is that 85 percent of couples reach agreement on all issues. It's good to have a highsuccess rate."
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