Family Law

(asked on 17th November 2014) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was for private family law cases to be resolved in court where at least one party is a litigant in person in (a) the UK and (b) Wales in each year from 2009 to 2014.


Answered by
 Portrait
Simon Hughes
This question was answered on 20th November 2014

Parties with no legal representation are not a new phenomenon in our courts. We have taken steps to help people who either want or have to represent themselves in court. The new package of support announced on 23 October is aimed at keeping disputes away from court, while those who end up in court will be provided with better support.

The Ministry of Justice has responsibility for courts in England and Wales only and the available information is provided in the table below. We do not hold this information prior to 2011 as the case management system “FamilyMan” was not used by all courts until the end of 2010. 2014 data is available up to June, and the full year figures for 2014 will not be published until late March 2015.

Average timeliness

England and Wales

Wales only

2011

14.6

19.4

2012

13.5

17.2

2013

13.6

17.0

2014[1]

15.8

19.1

Notes

Self-representation is determined by the field “legal representation” in FamilyMan being left blank. Therefore, this is only a proxy measure and parties without a recorded representative are not necessarily self-representing litigants in person.


[1] To end of June 2014

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