The Research Project

Abstract

Our three-year empirical study Mapping Paths to Family Justice was conducted in 2011–2014 and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (grant number ES/I031812/1). In 2009–10 when the Mapping Paths to Family Justice project was conceived, there was a widespread perception that the family justice system was in crisis, with diminishing resources available for courts and legal aid and increasing pressure on an already overstretched court system resulting in unacceptable delays. In this context it was hardly surprising that policy-makers should strongly encourage out-of-court resolution of family disputes. In 2010 the then Labour government appointed a board led by Sir David Norgrove to carry out a fundamental review of the family justice system, a process which was endorsed by the subsequent Coalition government which took office in May of that year. The Family Justice Review included the ‘guiding principle’ that ‘Mediation and similar support should be used as far as possible to support individuals themselves to reach agreements about arrangements, rather than having an arrangement imposed by the courts’ (Family Justice Review 2011a; see also Coalition 2010).