Expert calls for radical reform of family law courts system
on 02/07/2009 00:00:00
A FAMILY law expert and author of a new guide for lawyers on the area has called for a radical reform of the courts because families are facing a hard road through the legal system.The demand comes as a High Court judge last night said the new handbook on family law would speed up cases and allow less well-off families to use the courts to resolve issues.
The new Irish Family Law Precedents Service book gives users, also online, access to more than 350 cases, mainly covering issues in divorce and separation proceedings.
Author and solicitor Ciara Matthews said reform was needed in the area, with families facing painful and difficult disputes.
"What is needed is radical reform and not a tinkering with a broken system. We need both structural and legal reform, which I believe should and can be provided by the establishment of a separate and distinct family law division in the Circuit Court, where, currently, the majority of family law cases are litigated."
The book gives families and lawyers a step-by-step guide on using family law documents, refers readers to particular case precedents, legislation, and is expected to help reduce research costs for applicants.
Ms Matthews said the family law division needed a specific allocation of judges with interest and training in the area, who would be assigned to the court for two years to ensure cases that started before them would finish before them. A purpose-built building was also needed for cases which would provide private consultation rooms, she added.
"The adversarial nature of proceedings does little to resolve conflict in families' lives but rather compounds and increases that conflict in many cases," she said.
A new family law division should include childcare practitioners trained to have face-to-face discussions with children and funded by the State, Ms Matthews added.
Family law needed to be demystified, added the author, by simplifying the language used by practitioners and judges and further relaxing the in camera rule restricting media reporting.
Launching the new publication, a High Court family judge Mr Justice Henry Abbott said rooting out previous cases for court arguments would be a lot easier.
"I have no doubt that this aspect will result in considerably greater efficiencies for every practice, whether at the bar or in the solicitors' profession, leading to a faster and more efficient service for clients and better return for the legal profession in economic terms. I have no doubt that such a dramatic improvement in efficiency from such a comprehensive work will have very significant effects at the margins of legal representation in cases where before solicitors might not have been willing to take on cases at the lower end of the scale due to poor economic return. Now with this service, I anticipate that significantly more people are likely to be legally represented in the law courts than heretofore," he said.