Fee-charging McKenzie Friends are a current hot topic in the legal press. Only this week a fee-charging McKenzie Friend was jailed for perverting the course of justice in a private family law case and earlier this year the Judiciary conducted a consultation into the courts’ approach to McKenzie Friends.
In response to the ongoing debate, the Bar Council is currently funding research into the work that fee-charging McKenzie Friends do to support litigants in person in private family law cases. There is very little evidence about the background, skills and practices of fee-charging McKenzie Friends and there is no research on the factors underpinning litigants’ decisions to employ a fee-charging McKenzie Friend or on their experiences as McKenzie Friend clients.
Dr. Emma Hitchings is part of an independent research team looking into these issues and is currently in the process of recruiting clients of fee-paying McKenzie Friends that have used them to help resolve a dispute about childcare arrangements or post-divorce financial arrangements.
Potential participants can find out more information by visiting this website, or they can take part by sending an email to McKenzieFriends@cardiff.ac.
Read Emma’s full blog for more information.