First Anniversary Of No Fault Divorce
Today is the first anniversary of No Fault Divorce. It was a landmark moment ending the need for separating couples to apportion blame for their marriage breakdown. For the last year couples have been able to apply for divorce together, starting the process as they mean to go on, without blame and without taking sides.
That’s what our joint service is all about.
But the language of family separation hasn’t moved on and (outside joint processes like ours) can still be highly adversarial. Words like battle, fight, dispute, versus, and child custody are still commonplace in our society and the media, despite every effort to remove them.
Today Family Solutions Group UK, backed by Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, is calling for a radical change in outdated and combative language used by lawyers, courts, media and the wider public in cases of family separation.
They have published the results of a survey and polls carried out by FSG’s Language Group to find out which words are most harmful and helpful, and to better understand how language impacts separating parents and their children, and also the professionals who support them. Our co-founders Samantha and Harry contributed to their report.
In the words of Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division:
“It’s blindingly obvious that the language we have been using is not appropriate and only goes to stoke the minds of those in a combative mindset, rather than direct them in a different way.”
“…this is not a custody fight, it’s a coming together of parents to work together to reduce the impact on their children and help them resolve their issues about the arrangements for their children, in as low a temperature as possible.”
We support the Family Solutions Group’s call to use proportionate language in family cases and, above all, to use family focussed and, where appropriate, solutions-based words like collaboration, co-parenting, working together and problem solving.
You can read more about The Family Solutions Group’s work here.
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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