More Tasmanian families are avoiding the court process and resolving their issues through mediation.
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With nearly 481 mediation conferences completed in the last financial year, compared to 347 the previous year, Legal Aid’s court ordered program has been labelled a major success.
Launceston-based family dispute resolution manager Christine Arnott said mediation provided better outcomes for children.
“Many of these cases are the most difficult, sometimes involving multiple families and issues such as family violence, drug and alcohol addiction and mental health issues,” she said.
“We help people reach decisions about who the children will live with and how they will spend time with their other parent or step-parent and visit with step-families.”
Of the conferences held over the past year, 90 per cent settled. Fifty were court ordered conferences and 43 of those settled. Twenty-three were child inclusive conferences with only one unable to settle.
“With these excellent results, I am incredibly proud of my team of mediators who have done such outstanding work over the last year,” Ms Arnott said.
“Sue Smit, our conference coordinator, has done an excellent job managing this huge increase in her workload with the assistance of only one additional day per week from another administration staff member, who she is training in the role.”
A small team of lawyers in both the North and South, including retired Judge Stuart Roberts, undertake the conferences.
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“They are successful because they are conducted by experienced family lawyers, who are trained in mediation and are very experienced in the court’s systems.
“They are able to say to the clients ‘this is your chance to do what’s best for your children and find a solution you can live with. If you go to trial, it will be very costly for both of you ... and potentially devastating for your children’.
“If we can settle the dispute through mediation conferences, it will make court lists shorter and reduce the numbers of self-represented litigants, who struggle to understand how the Federal Circuit Court works.”
Legal Aid is located at 64 Cameron Street, Launceston.