The recent ruling given by Mrs Justice Knowles in X v Y (2024) provides insight and guidance to parties going through family proceedings about the need to continually assess whether their differences could be resolved out of court.

In the present case, the parties did not engage in any form of non-court dispute resolution before issuing financial remedy and children proceedings. As a result, legal fees in the financial remedy proceedings are expected to reach £1.1 million if the matter proceeds to a final hearing. The legal fees for the children proceedings are estimated to be at least £300,000 on top of this.

Whilst the parties in this case have a large financial asset base, the judge described their failure to engage in non-court dispute resolution “utterly unfathomable”.

The ruling highlights the court’s expectation that a “serious effort” must be made by parties to resolve matters before they issue court proceedings and at any stage thereafter where appropriate.

Rule 3.3(1) of the Family Procedure Rules (FPR) currently mandates the court with a duty to consider if non-court dispute resolution is appropriate at every stage of the proceedings.

Whilst the court does not currently have the power to require parties to engage in non-court dispute resolution, changes to be implemented on 29 April 2024 will mean the court can encourage parties to use gaps in the proceeding’s timetable for the purpose of non-court dispute resolution or adjourn the proceedings for parties to try to mediate out of court. In addition, amendments to costs sanctions mean that a failure of the parties either to attend a MIAM (mediation, information and assessment meeting) or non-court dispute resolution can be taken into account by the court.

Not only does non-court dispute resolution prevent family resources being dissipated on legal fees, it can also protect the future relationship of the parties, especially if they need to co-parent going forward.     

If you would like any further information or advice in relation to divorce proceedings, financial remedy proceedings or family court proceedings, please contact our specialist family lawyers based in Wolverhampton, Cradley Heath and Sutton Coldfield. We serve clients across the West Midlands and Birmingham.  You can call 01902 328 355 to speak to one of our family lawyers.