LEADING Liverpool family lawyers are backing calls to allow divorcing couples to claim legal aid when they use “collaborative” lawyers.

Resolution, who represent family lawyers, has found 85% of cases dealt with collaboratively were successful and many of them concluded more quickly.

But the Legal Services Commission (LSC), which controls the Legal Aid budget, has so far refused to make it available to poorer couples.

Morecrofts partner Godfrey Freeman, who is also the president of Resolution, told LDP Legal: “We’re very keen on it as a process. Resolution felt that it was another alternative to going to court.” In collaborative cases, divorce lawyers and their clients sign documents committing to collaboration. They then hold “round-table” negotiations in which both parties share information about their assets.

Mr Freeman added: “I’m not saying this is a ‘solve all’ thing by any means, but we would look at what’s best for the individual clients and for a good number of people this has proved a success.

“But, at the moment, we can only deal with it on a fee-paying basis. We’ve been in negotiations with the LSC to persuade them that it would be a money saver all round.”

Resolution’s research showed that two-thirds of cases using collaboration settled earlier than they would have done using traditional methods.