amicable is an online legal services company designed to help separating couples communicate and co-operate and build a post separation relationship based on courtesy and respect. We understand that when couples divorce, they can feel that they are being torn apart emotionally, financially, and psychologically, and that during that time co-operation is their most precious commodity.
Our mission is to transform how people end their relationships in a kinder and better way. We offer separation, divorce, and co-parenting services to couples that we feel are better and kinder than traditional approaches. amicable operates in the JusticeTech space – business to consumer legal services companies (companies that provide services directly to the end user) using tech to deliver access to justice. We mix technology and humans to deliver our service. In the five years we have been operating, we have become one of the largest providers of divorce services by volume.
I’m Kate Daly, I co-founded amicable with Pip Wilson a tech entrepreneur, after my own train-wreck divorce. The experience was emotionally devastating and financially ruinous. Coming through that experience made me think deeply about why I hadn’t found a better, kinder way to separate. When I looked at the market, no one offered what I, the consumer, wanted. Instead, the offer was shaped around traditional solicitors working in the same tightly defined legal model where two opposing sides are created, and there’s a win/lose outcome. It’s divisive and expensive, not just for the individuals involved but for society. The cost of picking up the pieces of relationship breakdown is an estimated £51bn[1] a year – more than the defence budget.
The removal of legal aid support for certain family law cases after the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, 2012[2]left a hole in legal services provision. In any other marketplace such a void would have been filled with new service offerings and tech-based solutions. The family law market, however, is notoriously fragmented. No single player has more than 2% of the market. It comprises many small, local providers who tend not to have capital to invest in technology. Added to this only 3% of investment capital in the lawtech space goes to B2C companies2[3]. This ensures the same low tech, low volume, high-cost model persists.
If we are serious about access to justice, we need to offer help and support to consumers at all price points. Technology is at the heart of delivering this. Helping people at proportionate cost doesn’t mean automating everything and getting rid of humans. It means using humans for the tasks only ‘humans’ can do. There is not a binary choice between ‘(wo)man and machine’. The interplay between the two enables scalable access to justice and better customer experience.
I believe divorce is an emotional issue with legal and financial consequences. Technology’s ability to cope well with emotions is in its infancy. So, the scope for humans to work together to problem solve is vast. Solving family issues is not just about applying the law. As a family member and consumer, I have problems, not ‘legal issues’ or ‘unmet legal needs’. I want someone to help me solve my problem in the round.
Working with emotions and the human experience enables amicable to provide a whole solution to a consumer problem rather than just a legal outcome. Involving customers in co-creating a solution that they own, and passing on skills for resolving issues for themselves in the future is a key part of what we do. This is especially important in co-parenting where most parents know agreements need to bend and shape to the constantly changing backdrop of family life.
Ending relationships is emotionally painful and legally challenging. Traditional models of dealing with it are rooted in a partisan, two-sided approach. They needn’t be, and that is why amicable exists.
[1] Relationships Foundation 2018 report into family breakdown https://relationshipsfoundation.org/publications/pressreleases/cost-family-failure-2018-update/
[2] https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/topics/legal-aid/laspo-act
[3]Cited in LAWTECH UK Building an entrepreneurial ecosystem to improve access to justice (March 2023) https://www.sra.org.uk/sra/research-publications/technology-innovation-in-legal-services/
