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Dealing With Family Court
The Darker Side of Family Court
The Family Court and Family Division deal with all kinds of legal disputes to do with children and the breakdown of relationships.
Most seriously, the Family Court will deal with cases where the government intervenes in a family to protect children from harm. That can lead to the children being taken into care and eventually adopted or placed with extended family.
Family lawyers sometimes refer to this as “public” family law. In 2015/6 there were almost 15,000 such cases involving 42,000 children. Widely hidden target setting by government exposed by investigative journalists in 2017 revealed that targets for children being taken from families had dramatically risen. Slightly after this in 2018 A report published by Dr Andy Bilson revealed a significant number of children being removed by social services for being ‘at risk of emotional harm’ and many professionals are questioning the removal causes, evidence and professional procedures of these highly traumatising and possibly unnecessary child removal cases.
The Family Court also deals with family disputes between individuals. Divorce is a classic example. Working out where children live after their parents split up, and other disputes having to do with children, is referred to as “private” family law(because it’s a dispute between two private individuals). There were just under 50,000 private family law cases concluded in 2018, involving over 184,000 children.
Many people including parents, families, professional social workers and solicitors have grave concerns with how family court is lacking in awareness of domestic abuse and the impact on the protective parent and children. https://www.louisehaigh.org.uk/news/2019/05/28/inquiry-into-the-family-courts/
Celestine Greenwood, a human rights lawyer and activist in UK family law, specifically public law children cases stated in 2021 regarding this progress:
"The criminal law, private law children, and public law children systems treat domestic abuse cases and those embroiled in them, including children, in discordant and disproportionate ways. … the treatment of the alleged victim, and the recognition of the harm inflicted, … highlight a gaping disconnect with the way domestic abuse in families is treated in public law family proceedings.
…
The adult victim in such cases (most commonly, but not always, the mother) is subjected to shame and legal jeopardy as they are required not only to acknowledge that their received abuse has inflicted harm on their children, they are further required to undertake the enormously demanding task of progressing and healing toward ‘survivor’ in less than 26 weeks (the timescale for public law proceedings) for fear that otherwise this may be a factor resulting in the permanent removal of the children from their care…"
In February 2020 a group of 130 family and human rights lawyers and women’s organisations penned an ‘open letter’ https://www.lag.org.uk/resources/javascript/pdf.js/web/viewer.html?file=/?fileid=-20346 to the President of the Family Division and the Secretary of State for Justice in which they excoriated the system with the rebuke, “Increasingly, the courts are no longer seen as a safe place for women who have been abused.” This was followed in June by the publication of the final report of the Harm Panel which recognised, inter alia, that the de facto presumption in contact was a barrier to raising domestic abuse.
In January 2021 Hayden J gave an insightful expostulation of coercive and controlling behaviour in the case of Re F-v-M. He also raised the efficacy of the tools used for pleading such cases. March saw the landmark decision of the Court of Appeal in Re H-N and the end of April saw the long-awaited passage of the Domestic Abuse Act. Celestine Greenwood writes:
"In my professional experience, however, little shift if any has been effected in public law proceedings. In public law, the paradigm that saw the adult victim as somehow deserving or responsible for the abuse and that demanded both an unrealistic level of insight and strength that he/she protect the children from the risk of harm ... .
It is time for us to concentrate efforts in bringing the same level of insight about domestic abuse that we now bring to private law family and criminal proceedings to the sphere of public law cases."
Citation: https://www.exchangechambers.co.uk/celestine-greenwood-criminal-private-public-law-children/
Public Law and Social Services
If you have involvement with public law and feel like you are somehow entering something uncomfortable, or have a feeling that you have fallen into an Alice in Wonderland book or have found a group that has filled you with concern about involvement by social services then you are not alone.
We are highly experienced at helping parents who have found themselves involved with social services and their associated professionals and have had to read through volumes of confusing documentation and reports that do not seem to match their case or experiences.
You are not alone. You are far from alone.
Please call us should you wish a consultation to find out how we can give you clarity and sensible emotional support to ensure your good mental health when dealing with these professionals in these highly alarming proceedings.
Private Law and CAFCASS
Private law proceedings are hurtful, confusing and place the victims of domestic abuse particularly in a very vulnerable position where they are at risk of losing more than their mental health particularly if a CAFCASS official or associated professional does not seem to share your protective view on your or your childrens situation.
We are well versed at assisting parents when entering the often highly distressing world of family court under private law proceedings and all that it involves.
You are not alone. You are far from alone.
Please call us should you wish a consultation to find out how we can emotionally support you to ensure your good mental health during and after these highly distressing proceedings.