FAMILY JUSTICE REVIEW

During my time in private practice in a Hull based family law firm, the majority of my work involved divorce and its subsequent fall-out, which were mainly child matters in relation to contact and residence. The process of Court proceedings is unavoidably heart rendering for parents who often have different ideas of what is best for their children. Often parents turn to family lawyers and at the last resort, the Court in order for Judges to make a final decision on what is best for their children.
On average half a million children are involved in the Court.
A 228 page report has now emerged which has proposed many changes in relation to such family proceedings.
One recommendation which has come from the Family Justice Review is that there will not be an automatic right for fathers to have a “meaningful relationship” with their children which will be a setback for the group Fathers 4 Justice who hoped that this review would advance their cause. Sadly for them it has not. What a “meaningful relationship” is, is I think subjective and one that nobody knows.
However, in respect of fathers ‘rights’ I would often have to advise my clients, mother and fathers, that the child’s rights were important and that the child’s welfare was what the Family Court had to put first. Sadly, I often had to remind parents of this.
The review also recommends that the average court case should have a time limit of six months to reach its conclusion rather than the 60 weeks average of a case, sometimes even longer. I have myself been involved in cases that have gone on for an extraordinary amount of time. The worry of course is that once protracted court cases have finally come to an end, the mother or the father would not adhere to a Court Order and the case would have to go back to the Court all over again. Infuriating for all concerned not least damaging for the child or children in question. This then causing another financial burden on the individual or the state; the Review also recommends mediation to be used more rather than going to the Courts, but this I fear is more related to saving legal aid costs than anything else and mediation rarely works, but just causes more entrenched bad feeling and ultimately, longer Court proceedings.
In relation to this new document, it doesn’t in fact change anything, but it does propose quicker Court proceedings, which is no doubt good, but the other side of the coin is, I fear, that costs and Court time may become a main factor rather than a fair Court process.
This document does not, in fact, change anything. I just hope we do not see more grown men dressed up in batman costumes scaling the scenery of London because of it.

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