Looking Back: 35 Years in Practice and a Lifetime of Change

This is a big year for me personally. I will have been qualified as a solicitor for 35 years in February. It’s a huge milestone and it has given me cause to reflect on how
much practice has changed since 1991.
There have been many changes in the way family law is approached. In divorce cases we now have a ‘no fault’ regime which makes it much easier for lay people to
bring loveless marriages to an end. It brought to an end the ‘unreasonable behaviour’ petition which all too often brought a level of acrimony into a relationship
breakdown which seeped into issues relating to children and finances.
I have seen massive changes in the way disputes relating to children are dealt with. When I started out we operated in a system where we had orders for ‘custody, care
and control’ and ‘access’ as though a child was akin to a chattel. This moved to ‘residence’ and ‘contact’ and now ‘Child Arrangements’.

The biggest recent change which is gradually becoming nationwide after a number of pilot schemes is the ‘Pathfinder Scheme’ which places children at the forefront of the
Court’s decision-making process. Before parents see the inside of a Court room a detailed ‘Child Impact’ Report is prepared. On those reports a photograph of the
child is included. While a small thing, this and the reports generally remind everyone that the case is about a real live person and not just a name and date of birth. As a
solicitor I love to see the photograph of the child and to know what he or she looks like.
In finance case the old ‘affidavit of means’ seems like ancient history. While Form E does not provide for the literary flourishes often seen in the past it does provide a
uniform way of providing early financial disclosure.
We now live in a digital age. Gone are the days of huge piles of files beside a desk with little tapes of dictation which invariably broke at a crucial point forcing a solicitor
to re – dictate work which they thought was off their desk and on its way.
I remember as a young solicitor the day my then firm had a fax machine delivered. We were awe struck by the machine’s ability to send documents through the telephone wires! It seems laughable when we now communicate instantly by email,
messages and the Courts use digital portals for case management. Most offices are now paper free or lite. Unthinkable that a secretary would use a manual typewriter, carbon paper and Tippex.

These are just a few changes – space does not permit me to list more especially as we are all living in a world of Tik Tok and You Tube and any reader may have lost interest by now and moved on to the next headline, including this aging solicitor!