ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an evaluation of current county court mediation policy and practice, with an eye to the early years of the new unified agency, Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS), launched in April 2001. It reviews the county court practice within the conceptual context of informalism. Mediators, their managers and governors, and future researchers have three main indicators of performance at their disposal, in addition to a suitable measure of cost, they are: settlement rate, intactness of agreement and user satisfaction rating. A key principle of family mediation is that mediators 'control the process of mediation but not the outcome'. In other words, the role is concerned with establishing and maintaining an environment in which parties can resolve their dispute, rather than offering solutions. Non-resident fathers who desire a much more active involvement in bringing up their children are likely to feel marginalised by the traditional assumptions and processes of mediation and the wider family court system.
