AccessResolve Property Dispute Resolution for Court-Ordered Clients: Satisfaction and Outcomes

23 August 2023

Since 2012, Relationships Australia Victoria has provided AccessResolve, a property dispute resolution service for court-ordered clients, on behalf of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The service consistently achieves high settlement rates of 70% or more each year, above the settlement rate of traditional family dispute resolution (FDR). 

AccessResolve uses a lawyer-assisted conciliation model, through which practitioners adopt an advisory role when necessary to assist parties to reach agreement, and lawyers are active participants in the process. 

In 2019-20, we evaluated the service with a view to whether client satisfaction, practitioner impartiality and client self-determination could be achieved when conciliation was court-ordered. 

The results of the study were first presented at the National Mediation Conference in September 2021. 

Key findings include that: 

• 78% of respondents were ‘very much’ or ‘somewhat’ satisfied with the way conciliation was carried out 
• 90% of respondents stated that their practitioner was ‘very much’ or ‘somewhat’ impartial and even-handed 
• 69% of respondents were ‘very much’ or ‘somewhat’ satisfied with their conciliation outcome 
• 82% of respondents felt that they were ‘very much’ or ‘somewhat’ able to express their point of view in conciliation 
• 92% of respondents agreed that having a lawyer present was helpful, and no clients interviewed felt that their practitioner exerted too much influence during negotiations.