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The public accounts committee has criticised "avaricious lawyers" who are "happy to cash in" on divorce cases by failing to recommend mediation as an alternative form of settling the outcome.
MPs found that family disputes that are resolved through mediation can be cheaper, quicker and, according to academic research, less acrimonious than those that are settled through the courts.
Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "In one third of the family breakdown cases surveyed by the National Audit Office, solicitors did not advise their clients that professional mediation was an option.
"But mediation is often a swifter and less acrimonious path; and it is cheaper.
"It is important to avoid courtroom confrontations as far as possible – even if some avaricious lawyers are more than happy to cash in by keeping quiet about the mediation alternative.
"It will still be a voluntary matter whether to go to mediation. And clients will in most cases need a degree of professional legal advice. But the Legal Services Commission must set a target for the number of cases it expects to be resolved by mediation rather than going to court – and make sure that solicitors take that target seriously."
Leigh said that the Commission proposed far-reaching changes to legal aid for family breakdown, including the requirement that clients seeking legal aid be screened for their suitability for mediation. It is also hoped that a new fixed fee system will give solicitors more incentives to refer their clients to mediation.
"These ideas are welcome but they will not get far unless the Commission's management information systems are improved radically," he added.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd