Family courts in Greater Manchester are being overloaded by warring parents as unpublished Government figures reveal that in first year of cuts to legal aid more parties attended court without a lawyer than with one.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, over 60% of parents attending court to contest contact and residency arrangements, were listed by the Ministry of Justice as unrepresented. In 2012/13 – when legal aid was still available to fund lawyers – 42% parents were unrepresented.

In total, 3,927 parents were unrepresented in 2013/14. This is an increase of almost 50% compared to same figure for 2012/13.

Hardest hit were unrepresented mothers who accounted for more than half of all unrepresented parents at court in 2013/14. Year on year, the number of unrepresented mothers increased by almost 60% (59%) compared to 2012/13. The number of unrepresented fathers also increased by nearly 40% (39%) compared to 2012/13.

Publication of the Ministry of Justice figures – secured via a Freedom of Information request – coincides with the Manchester launch of LawyerSupportedMediation.com: a new divorce & separation service designed to keep warring parents from the courts.

Spearheaded by North West law firm Stephensons Solicitors LLP, Lawyer-Supported Mediation is being made available across Greater Manchester by over 30 divorce lawyers from eleven participating law firms.

Mike Devlin, managing partner of the Family department at Stephensons, said: “The massive increase in people representing themselves is leading to huge delays at court as judges struggle to help people representing themselves understand the proceedings and what is happening.

"Often people find that decisions go against them because they’ve not been able to refer the judge to the relevant legal points of their case. They can end up getting emotional and not representing their cause in the best possible way.

“To respond to this crisis in representation the legal industry is having to completely rethink how best to serve clients which is why more affordable approaches need to be urgently developed.”

Marc Lopatin, trained family mediator and founder of LawyerSupportedMediation.com said: “The answer is not putting lawyers back in the courtroom at the public’s expense. Instead, the government should be doing all it can to encourage lawyers and mediators to work in tandem. This is the only way to make available the support parents need at a price most can afford.

“Telling separating families to simply ‘mediate don’t litigate’ is not working. Mediation numbers have collapsed by almost a third in Manchester since the government drove a wedge between lawyers and mediators in 2013. People need lawyers to feel secure and to provide advice so decisions being taken at mediation are informed.

“The alternative is still more parents heading to court and goodness knows how many lopsided kitchen table deals are being done where one party is selling themselves short.”

In 2013/14, almost eight out of ten separating couples that began family mediation went on to reach agreement.* To encourage the take-up of family mediation, the government now insists the party taking legal action against their former partner first attend a mediation awareness meeting.