This is an example of how utterly messed up this country is with regards to legal aid, benefits and the rights of men in a divorce. When a woman files for divorce and wants, or is entitled to legal aid she must apply for mediation first. This is where a team of pointless social workers offer to get the two of you together to talk about your problems first.

Sounds like a good idea in theory, as so many of these ideas are, yet the reality is utterly farcical. You see, to get legal aid she must apply for mediation first. It’s a requirement. However, she doesn’t actually have to attend any mediation. When the paperwork is sent off and the husband is notified that he’s required to attend a mediation meeting, after having booked a day off work for it, the woman can simply refuse to show and say she didn’t think it was worth it.

So, she’s fulfilled the requirement of applying for mediation in order to get her hand out from the taxpayer in the form of legal aid, but she doesn’t actually have to turn up. Surely there’s something wrong here? I realise there is a requirement to try to ensure that legal aid isn’t wasted on couples that might have acted hastily and applied for divorce prematurely when they could perhaps settle their differences, but to insist on the woman applying for mediation only for her to not have to actually go through with it is the height of absurdity.

Why waste everyone’s time? Why waste the solicitor’s time, the husband’s time, the mediator’s time… even the woman’s time? Jumping through these pointless hoops of applying for something she has no intention of, or requirement for showing up for, just so she can get legal aid.

It’s farcical, yet indicative of this red tape obsessed country.

Clive Bellmore