FNF Response to Ministry of Justice consultation on “revising the help with fees".
The Government is proposing to modestly raise the income levels below which court fees in civil actions are reduced or not payable at all. Useful and welcome within their limits. A lot of the proposals are detailed and technical to do with the calculations of income and capital.
The main thrust of our comments, which we hope will get the attention of at least the Junior Minister, Mike Freer MP, are to do with the context of which this is a detail. He mentioned, in his foreword to the paper the need for Justice to be accessible. So, we have picked up on that. Particularly drawing attention to how family law, which is about the futures of children, differs from other ’private’ ‘civil’ disputes between citizens. There needs to be ‘joined-up thinking’ across the board to improve things for the children affected by separation and divorce.
This is a taster for the more important consultation, about promoting mediation as an alternative to litigation. We will welcome non-adversarial proceedings. However, we are sceptical about whether the proposals -of Dominic Raab who is no longer in charge – will make the difference that he (and ourselves) would like to see.
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