Family Law
When we talk about family law, it means different things to different people, depending on what is happening in your life. Divorce, money, children. All of which have major impacts on our lives when we are faced with dealing with one or more of those issues. It means that something has changed in our life, for some it might feel like everything is going wrong. Emotions make it difficult to make decisions and so many turn to a solicitor for support to
deal with the law, the court and sometimes as a breathing space.
If you cannot afford a solicitor, you have the stress of navigating proceedings yourself.
For matters involving children, you may be needing advice because you and your partner have separated, and you cannot agree on the time the children spend with each of you, or which school the children will attend. You may have Children’s Services involved and you have been told that the case is so serious that the next steps are the removal of your children.
The prospect of being in Court, either in private law proceedings or public law proceedings may be daunting enough, but to then be told that your case could take 100 weeks to be resolved? If that feels like forever to an adult, image how long that must feel to a child?
Care Proceedings (public law) should be completed within 26 weeks. That is what the Law says. However, there will always be very serious cases that need longer. This might be because there is expert evidence that the Court needs to enable it to make the right decisions for very vulnerable children. The reason we need to keep to a tight timetable is that children need to know what is happening in their lives. Where are they going to be living and with whom? Can they return to parents? If not, can they live with other family members? If not, they need to be matched with an adoptive family, or long-term foster placement as soon as possible to enable them to settle. If children need therapy or other support, being in a settled placement (whoever that is with) is the best chance they have for that to work.
Private Law Proceedings should only be in Court when everything else has failed to enable an agreement, but where serious allegations are made, the Court needs to hear evidence to determine whether it is safe for a child to have contact with a parent in some form. If there are significant delays, that could mean a child not seeing a parent for months. The damage it could do to the relationship between child and parent may be irreparable. That can be both for the parent wishing to see a child, but also the parent caring for the child. The impact delays have where there are issues of domestic abuse are an article in themselves.
If you need the Court to deal with a financial arrangement, common sense dictates that the more hearings you have, the more money you are spending, the less you have in the pot at the end.
Since Legal Aid funding was slashed in 2013, the number of people having to represent themselves in family courts has risen from 13% to 39% (2013 -2024) Apart from providing legal advice, solicitors provide the court with court bundles that are in the expected format (or should do), statements that comply with the Family Procedure Rules and can assist the Court with management of the case. If an expert is required to assist the Court, a Solicitor can ensure that that expert is properly qualified, has the court papers, has all the information required to ensure the Court receives a report that is compliant with the rules and is on time.
Legal Aid is available for Care Proceedings where you are a parent or hold parental responsibility for the child or children involved. If you are accused of harming a child and have been invited to attend court and become an Intervenor, legal aid may be available but it is means and merits tested.
Legal Aid is available in private law proceedings in limited circumstances, apart from being means and merits tested, you also require evidence of being a victim of domestic abuse, or the other parent has harmed the children.
The Court is restricted in the orders it can make – it cannot order a parent to be more reasonable, to act in a more friendly manner, or for people to be flexible and get on with each other (which is what many people actually want||) The Court is restricted by the law, and solicitors and lawyers are best placed to help navigate applicants and respondents around that.
Until the Government provides adequate funding for Legal Aid and to the Court system itself, families will continue to suffer from delays, expectations that cannot be met and worst of all, children will continue to come to harm. That, surely, is unconscionable to any society.
