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Over the past few days, several prominent news providers have featured stories on DIY divorce, each pointing to the fact that a growing number of people are shunning the services of divorce solicitors and are choosing to represent themselves during proceedings instead.

The rise in the number of individuals seeking DIY divorce is, according to several family court judges, causing significant delays in the UK’s courts with DIY divorces taking on average twice as long to process as those where both parties are represented.

With rising economic pressures, though, it is hardly surprising that more and more people are seeking a cheaper alternative to solicitors. What is surprising is the fact that, whilst mediation has been compulsory for all separating couples unable to agree on matters such as the division of assets and finances from April of last year, only a third of solicitors are actually referring their clients to mediators. More surprising, still, is the fact that nearly 80% of courts are not checking whether or not this compulsory mediation had been undertaken following them having received an application for a divorce. In other words, a method of dispute resolution which could, in many instances, help divorcing couples arrive at an agreement and allow them to pursue a straightforward, uncontested divorce is simply not being utilised.

Take this into consideration, and it isn’t hard to see why more and more people are declining the services of solicitors in an attempt to save money. Whilst mediation can bring about a cost-effective divorce solution by helping couples to agree contentious issues and preventing lengthy legal disputes, many individuals that are seeking a divorce are, it would seem, not being informed of this and with traditional solicitor-led divorces costing thousands of pounds, it would not surprise Quickie Divorce if many people have informal discussions with solicitors, receive a costs estimate, baulk at it and decided to represent themselves.

Now, many solicitors may argue that mediation is only effective when both spouses are willing to commit themselves to it and that, as their client was highly embittered, mediation would have been unable to produce the necessary results and a referral was therefore unnecessary. Whilst previous research may provide such arguments with some credibility, however, it is hard to gauge just how successful mediation could be when people aren’t being made aware of it.

Alternatively, it could be claimed that an individual or indeed a couple could instruct a mediator themselves, but this contention is also flawed. Whilst online divorce providers, solicitors and the courts are fully aware of the services offered by mediators, the same cannot be said of the general public. As a result, solicitors should be – least of all because it is now compulsory – informing would be clients, and indeed existing clients, of alternative dispute methods such as mediation.

So, if you’re reading this and are considering or even going through a divorce and have been unable to agree everything with your spouse, please consider mediation. Not only could it save you money, it could also turn an otherwise acrimonious divorce into a relatively amicable one.