Arbitration is a destination firmly routed on the President’s road-MAP to financial remedy reform

In his latest manifesto, released on 6 June, the President takes a very broad but also detailed look at the practices and procedures (what one might call the contours) of the financial remedies landscape. MAP 2014 (cf. CAP) is his new-launched Money Arrangements Programme. Its members have been tasked to produce their preliminary report by 31 July.

Arbitration is a prominent destination on the road-MAP which is plotted (amongst much else) to ‘encourage and facilitate the use of out-of-court methods of resolving financial disputes, whether by mediation, arbitration or other appropriate techniques.’ The twin aspects suggested by the President as necessary for this purpose are:

‘(1) Encouraging the use of non-court dispute resolution (N-CDR) methods both before the commencement of proceedings and at every stage thereafter. MIAMs are now as much a part of financial remedy cases as of private law children cases.

(2) Facilitating the quick and easy implementation of out-of-court agreements in financial remedy cases. Following on from my decision in S v S, dealing with how the court should approach applications to enforce arbitral awards in financial remedy cases, I want to move forward as soon as possible on two fronts, which the review will be considering.

Pending more general changes to the Family Procedure Rules in relation to arbitration and other forms of Non-Court Dispute Resolution I wish to issue in the near future, for discussion and comment, both a draft rule change to enable relevant applications under the Arbitration Act 1996 to be made in the Family Division and not only, as at present, in the Commercial Court; and also draft Guidance dealing with a number of procedural matters not covered by S v S.’

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