Mediate, mediate, mediate…..

The new family Court came into being on 22nd April and will (hopefully) have wide-ranging impact on solicitors and clients alike. The new reforms seek to put children at the heart of the family justice system. The focus will be on children’s needs rather than what parents see as their own ‘rights’.

One of the biggest shake-ups from a client’s perspective is the requirement to attend a family mediation information meeting prior to the issue of any court proceedings. The idea is to force separating couples to consider mediation as an alternative to potentially harmful and stressful court battles when resolving financial matters and arrangements for child contact. If these work in encouraging more people into mediation (or other alternative dispute resolution options), they will both reduce the pressure on our court system and hopefully help people to work together, rather than against each other, in resolving the inevitable disputes that arise on a separation.

As part of the reforms, a new Family Court in England and Wales has been introduced with a single system and a network of single application points, which is intended to make it easier for the public to navigate.

Much discussion has taken place within the profession on everything from the new court ‘seal’ to the prospect of travelling across the country to various county courts, rather than being able to issue in our local ‘favourite’ court. There are, however, more significant wide-ranging issues that need to be borne in mind. The hope is that the changes will help us all to utilise our court resources more efficiently – something desperately needed given the mounting, and at times, overwhelming demands of increasing numbers of Litigants in Person.

The Family Court is designed to ensure the right level of judge is appointed for a particular case, in the most suitable location. It will also provide for all levels of judge to be able to sit in the same building, which will help reduce the unnecessary delays caused by cases transferring between different courts.

The introduction of a 26-week time limit for care proceedings is also implemented to further reduce the excessive delays in these cases and give greater certainty to the children involved. The hope is that the reforms to the family justice system will allow these children in difficult family situations to get the support they need to allow them to move forward with their lives and build a positive future.

In private law proceedings, new child arrangements orders (doing away entirely with the ‘labels’ of contact and residence) will hopefully encourage parents to focus on their child’s needs.

Part of achieving the reform objectives must be to have a system ‘working better’ for lawyers and their clients. It is hoped that the new unified Family Court, particularly with initiatives such as the specialist FRU (Financial Remedies Unit at what was the Principal Registry on High Holborn) will go some way to improving what is presently a chronically over-worked system. If not, lawyers and clients alike will need increasingly to consider very seriously the use of mediation and arbitration to resolve their disputes.

If you have any queries about this article please contact jonesnickolds on 0203 405 2300 or contact@jonesnickolds.co.uk