Solicitors should be encouraged to promote mediation in divorce cases, rather than taking cases to court, a National Audit Office (NAO) report suggests.
The NAO states that the Legal Services Commission could achieve this by not awarding legal support unless a client has been considered for mediation.
Potential for firms to be exposed to claims of bad advice may be increased by the news as the NAO report recognises that "decisions in all these cases necessarily rely heavily on professional judgment".
Figures cited in the NAO report show that mediation is associated with savings of up to £1,020 in an average case when compared with the legal costs of going to court.
Nick Pointon, Director of Lloyds Broking firm PYV, said this is important because "if past clients complain that they were not made aware of the potential savings offered by mediation, subsequent claims against a practice's professional indemnity insurance policy may follow in order to provide compensation". |
