Family Judge urges couples to stay away from Court
All professionals involved in Family Justice believe that Family Courts should be the absolute last resort for separating couples and their families. But none have put it quite as starkly as senior Family Law Judge HHJ Wildblood QC who sits in Bristol in the recent case of Re B (a child) (Unnecessary Private Law Applications) [2020] EWFC B44 in which he stated:
“I am releasing this judgment to highlight the extent to which court lists are being filled by interim private law hearings that should not require court involvement. By January 2021 we expect that, in this court, we will have double the number of outstanding private law cases that we had in January 2020. We already have over 1 ½ times the number of such cases since January 2020. There is a similar position in relation to applications for public law orders (e.g. applications for care orders). Therefore, not only is unnecessary litigation wasteful. It clogs up lists that are already over-filled – in terms of the over-riding objective, it amounts to an inappropriate use of limited court resources.
The court lists in this court are packed with work. I am fully listed until the middle of March and have listings into June. The lists of my colleagues are the same.
The cost of this appeal runs into thousands of pounds. The court (including myself) is paid for out of public funds. The mother is legally aided and thus her legal costs are paid from public funds. The father has funded his own solicitor and counsel.
The judges at this court have an unprecedented amount of work. We wish to provide members of the public with the legal service that they deserve and need. However, if our lists are clogged up with this type of unnecessary, high conflict private law litigation, we will not be able to do so.
Therefore, the message in this judgment to parties and lawyers is this, as far as I am concerned. Do not bring your private law litigation to the Family court here unless it is genuinely necessary for you to do so. You should settle your differences (or those of your clients) away from court, except where that is not possible. If you do bring unnecessary cases to this court, you will be criticised, and sanctions may be imposed upon you. There are many other ways to settle disagreements, such as mediation”.
There are many options for reshaping a family unit away from the Court arena, of which our One Couple One Lawyer service is one. Please don’t resort to the Family Court unless there really is no other way.
Author Name: Editor
Published content by The Divorce Surgery Editorial Team.
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