Government Commits to Family Justice Review recommendations

The Government has decided to follow some of the recommendations of the recent Independent Family Justice Review.

Although the number of family law cases started is generally lower than it was two years ago, there is still concern that family cases taken too long to go through the Court process. 

Care cases

Recently published Court statistics for the period of July - September 2011 showed that on average Care proceedings took 55 weeks. The Government has pledged to introduce a six-month time limit for care cases to be concluded.

Commenting on the Court statistics, Courts Minister, Jonathan Djanogly said: "[they] show that sometimes the court process can simply be too time consuming. That is why we have a comprehensive reform programme underway". 

Family mediation

The Family Justice Review recommendations also held out family mediation as an area for growth, suggesting it should become 'the norm' for divorcing couples seeking to resolve financial issues or disputes about their children. A Ministry of Justice press release of 12 January 2011 states:

"We agree with the Panel's strong focus on mediation for separating couples, as a more practical and amicable alternative to court, especially for children. We will be increasing funding for this [...] to £25 milliion a year"

The Government publish its full response to the Family Justice Review in the near future.

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If you are going through a break up, live in West Yorkshire and are interested in trying family mediation, Switalskis may be able to help you. Switalskis Family Mediation is a specialist family mediation service that works with couples to resolve issues around family breakdown, such as disuptes over finances and children.