View from the foot of the Tower: Avocado meetings

Since the first version of the PLO came into being way back in 2008 the parties have been supposed to convene an advocates meeting before the Case Management Conference (now Case Management Hearing) and Issues Resolution Hearing.  Two per case.  Usually with three advocates who are being paid by the Legal Aid Agency (mother father child)  - occasionally more and the local authority who sometimes brief it out and sometimes get paid.    

Since that version of the PLO came out 50 000 sets of care proceedings have been issued.  That's 100 000 advocates meetings. 3000 000 fee notes.

Nearly half a million pounds of public money all being spent on advocates meetings.

Sir David Norgrove when reporting on the Family Justice Review spoke about the lack of management information in the family justice system. Who else would spend half a million pounds on something without any analytical data about whether it was working or not   (with the possibly exception of the British Government and Tamiflu).

What are they supposed to achieve? Well...

Read the full article here.