The ‘turgid style’ of the procedure rules in the family courts makes the law so opaque it prevents access to justice, a prominent family law solicitor has claimed.
Writing in NLJ this week, solicitor and NLJ columnist David Burrows gives as example FPR 2010 Pt 16 (representation of children), much of which ‘is a repetition, with convoluted and confusing complexity, of the 1991 rules’. As for Pt 9 (finance), Burrows says ‘working out who is a party to children proceedings (a table with three columns and 34 rows) requires specialised skills’.
Burrows outlines ten reforms he would introduce, ranging from the reintroduction of legal aid for private family law cases to mediation, which ‘must not be compulsory, ever’ but ‘must be an established part of the court process, running in parallel—where proceedings have been started—with the litigation process’.
His suggestions include a ‘clear, workable’ set of disclosure rules for family cases and the replacement of the Child Support Act 1991 with a simpler system.
