{"id":777768,"date":"2026-09-21T12:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T12:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777768\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T12:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T12:06:12","slug":"almost-40-of-uk-adults-would-pay-more-to-resolve-family-disputes-faster-privately-survey-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777768\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost 40% of UK adults \u2018would pay more to resolve family disputes faster privately’ survey reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our articles are written by experts in their field and include barristers, solicitors, judges, mediators, academics and professionals from a range of related disciplines. Family Law provides a platform for debate for all the important topics, from divorce
\n and care proceedings to transparency and access to justice. If you would like to contribute please email emma.reitano@lexisnexis.co.uk.<\/a> <\/p>\n


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\"Third<\/p>\n

Almost two in five UK adults would be prepared to pay more to resolve family disputes privately if doing so resulted in a faster service or shorter waiting time, new research commissioned by Mills & Reeve suggests.<\/p>\n

A survey of 1,000 UK adults found that 38.9% would pay a premium for private financial dispute resolution to obtain a quicker resolution. Some 21% said they would pay up to \u00a3250 more, while a further 15% would pay up to \u00a3500.<\/p>\n

The research also found that 42% of respondents were already paying for one or more private services to resolve family law disputes outside the traditional court system.<\/p>\n

However, awareness of private family law options remained relatively low, with only 25% of respondents saying they were aware that alternatives to the court system were available.<\/p>\n

More than half of those surveyed (51%) agreed that people should be allowed to pay privately for a faster resolution of legal disputes. Some 13.8% identified reducing stress as a key motivation for paying for a faster resolution.<\/p>\n

Mills & Reeve said the findings indicated a gap between public demand for quicker dispute resolution and awareness of the private options available to people involved in family disputes.<\/p>\n

Article continues below…<\/p>\n

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Katherine Kennedy, partner at Mills & Reeve, said private financial dispute resolutions (FDRs) and early neutral evaluations (ENEs) could allow families to avoid being constrained by court availability.<\/p>\n

She said parties could choose an experienced evaluator, agree a suitable timetable and dedicate time to resolving the issues involved rather than waiting for a court hearing.<\/p>\n

Partner Matthew Heyworth said the research showed that people were increasingly recognising the value of certainty, efficiency and timely decision-making, with many prepared to invest in solutions intended to reduce delays and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

The research was conducted by Censuswide between 25 and 29 June 2026 among 1,000 nationally representative UK consumers.<\/p>\n

The findings are based on respondents\u2019 reported views and experiences and do not establish the proportion of family-law cases in which private dispute resolution would be suitable or result in a faster outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our articles are written by experts in their field and include barristers, solicitors, judges, mediators, academics and professionals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}