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Latest legal aid and court statistics published

Date:29 SEP 2016

Matthias Mueller

Journals Manager + Online Editor

The Ministry of Justice have today (29 September 2016) published their latest legal aid and family court statistics.

The quarterly legal aid bulletin shows:

new family legal help matter (advice and assistance but not representation or advocacy) were 9% lower than in the same period of 2015;
neither the applicant nor respondent had legal representation in 34% of private law cases, a 17% increase from same period in 2013;
in the last 2 quarters there has been a steep increase in both applications and numbers of certificates granted for cases citing domestic abuse, with the number of applications during the last quarter over 50% higher than the same period of the previous year and the number granted 35% higher;
the number of MIAMS were down 12% in the last quarter compared to the previous year;
mediation agreements stand at about 60% of pre-LASPO levels;
there were 85 Exceptional Case Funding applications received for Family of which 32 were granted.

The quarterly court bulletin shows:

there were a total of 66,328 cases started in the family courts in England and Wales in April to June 2016, a 10% increase on the same period last year;
the number of public law cases started has increased by 24% over the last 12 months from 3,896 to 4,833 in April to June 2016. Similarly, the number of children involved in public law applications increased by 21% over the same period to 8,972;
the number of private law cases started in April to June 2016 increased by 16% from the equivalent quarter in 2015 to 12,203;
the average time for the disposal of divorce cases with financial remedy has been steadily increasing from 20.5 weeks at the start of 2015 to 24.9 weeks in April to June 2016;
the average time for the disposal of a care or supervision application made in April to June 2016 was 27 weeks;
60% of care or supervision proceedings were disposed of within 26 weeks;
the number of applications for domestic violence remedy orders has remained stable over the last year at around 4,700 non-molestation and 1,200 occupation applications;
following their introduction in July 2015, there have been 77 applications and 68 orders made for Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FGMPOs) up to the end of June 2016;
1,429 applications were made for an adoption order, down 4% from the same quarter in 2015;
applications relating to deprivation of liberty doubled over the last 12 months from 386 made in April to June 2015 to 743 in the latest quarter.

The legal aid statistical bulletin is available to download here.

The quarterly family court statistical bulletin to download here.