Barristers take on solicitors in battle for survival: cost of divorce to fall

A team of family law barristers will today overturn centuries of legal tradition by being first to offer the public a fixed fee divorce service designed to keep their clients out of court.

The team of barristers from Middlesbrough are dispensing with the wig and gown to help warring couples reach out of court settlements over child arrangements and family finances.

The decision to encroach on the traditional turf of high street solicitors is the unintended consequence of the government’s swingeing cuts to the family justice system. Following the withdrawal of legal aid for most family law matters, solicitors are instructing fewer and fewer barristers to represent publicly funded clients at court. As well as being responsible for the ballooning number of parents now representing themselves at court, it is threatening barristers with financial ruin.

In July, the Bar Council warned that legal aid family barristers were forcing many to question their futures following an online poll of its members. Over two-thirds of impacted family barristers reported a drop in fee income while ‘many respondents’ questioned the ‘viability’ of a career at the bar and were ‘actively considering’ whether they have a long-term future following the cuts.

This should not surprise. In the first year of cuts to legal aid, family law barristers across the UK saw their legal aid income targeted by government plummet from £38m to £15m. Impacted barristers are therefore staring to take advantage of recent changes to Direct Access regulation that effectively allows them to offer the same services as high street family solicitors.

The group of barristers from Middlesbrough have formed their own collective called Divorce Puzzle to market themselves directly to the public at reduced rates to solicitors.