• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Logo
  • Home
  • Our Services
    • Fixed Fees
    • Divorce and Separation
    • Financial Disputes or Financial Remedy Proceedings
    • Breakdown Cover
    • Civil Partnership Breakdown
    • Children Matters
    • Mediation
    • Case Management
  • Your Paradigm Team
    • James Thornton
    • Frank Arndt
    • Evelyn Peacock
    • Paul Read
  • Fixed Fees
  • International
  • Paradigm Awards
  • Library
  • Contact Us

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

August 26, 2021 By Paradigm Family Law

Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

by Paul Read – London Office

Family law litigation is stressful. Family law court hearings can be very stressful. They can be “listed” or assigned a date to take place months in advance. The entire case will then be managed around that date. If a barrister is to be part of the team, they will only be chosen if they are available on the court date.

As the court date approaches, the intensity of the case increases. Statements must be drafted which necessarily require a client to subsume themselves in the detail of their family dispute. A barrister is often instructed and they must be briefed with all of the relevant documents. Ordinarily, once a barrister has received those documents they must be paid, regardless of whether the hearing goes ahead – or settles just before hand.

Witnesses must be given notice to attend court and bundles prepared for the court with the most up to date set of papers – often running to hundreds of pages of paginated documents. Position statements will be drafted which set out the client’s case in terms of the facts and the law. The emotional toll all of this takes on most client’s is considerable.

Imagine then, one week before a listed hearing is due to take place, with all of the above preparation done, an email is dispatched by the court informing the parties that the hearing will not be going ahead on the scheduled date but another date in the future which has not been decided upon yet. The reason being “lack of judicial availability.”

This has happened on more than once occasion to clients I represent and in one case, it happened twice to the same client. I was aghast.

The immediate issues this raises are many. What if there were urgent issues the court was due to determine? Should the client make a further urgent stand alone application? Is this likely to be listed (given a date) any quicker than the adjourned hearing? What about the barrister’s fee? They have prepared for the hearing and taken time out of their diary. But surly it cannot be right that a client pays for a barrister who has, in practical terms, done nothing for them? Will the witnesses be available for a hearing on a different date?

To be clear, there is no recourse back to the court. To use that oft used and slightly nihilistic phrase, “It is what it is.”

There are no easy answers to this but I do wonder why it is happening.

Upon reading the phrase, “Lack of judicial availability” in the modern climate, one immediately thinks of Covid. But I do not think that is the whole story. I think that government cuts in funding to the department of justice over many years have taken their toll on the civil and family court system to the point where it was breaking under it’s own weight long before Covid came along.

The Judges and staff of the Family Courts do an incredible job under immense pressures of work. I know from the court management of cases I deal with that judges of all levels have enormous workloads. There simply aren’t enough of them. Nor are there enough clerks, ushers and administrative staff who allow the justice system to function. The entire system has long been a precarious deck of cards with every person working to capacity and significantly, no surplus capacity. Covid, it seems, has turned a fan on that deck of cards and through no fault of the court staff and judges, people are suffering. People are being denied justice.

The system needs some form of emergency funding (Nightingale funding?). Our government must register this issue and act upon it. Now.

A warning. Family law is discretionary. It is essential that judges can reach a decision which is “fair” in “all the circumstances of the case”. It is probably the least appropriate area of law conceivable to employ Artificial Intelligence. However, Professor Richard Susskind, who chairs the Lord Chief Justice of England’s Advisory Group says (according to the BBC) that, “In the 1980s he was genuinely horrified by the idea of a computer judge, but that he isn’t now. He points out that even before Coronavirus, Brazil had a backlog of more than 100 million court cases, and that there is no chance of human judges and lawyers disposing of a case load of that size. So if an Artificial Intelligence system can very accurately (say with 95% probability) predict the outcome of a court decision, he says maybe we might start thinking about treating these predictions as binding determinations.”

We therefore have a senior advisor to the judiciary of England and Wales considering Artificial Intelligence as a possible solution to a backlog of court cases. Maybe that will come, but in the meantime the system simply needs proper funding.

Contact

Paradigm Family Law have a team of experienced lawyers to help guide you through the process of divorce, just waiting to hear from you.

If you would like more details on this or want to discuss your family law matter, please do not hesitate to contact James, Frank, Evelyn or Paul. Paradigm Family Law offers a free initial consultation and our fixed fee solutions cover financial proceedings from start to finish. You can call us on +44 (0)20 3633 2301  or email us to [email protected].

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: justice, Paul Read

Primary Sidebar

Contact Us

Blake House, 18 Blake Street,
YORK YO1 8QH
(01904) 217225

10 Fitzroy Square
LONDON, W1T 5HP
020 3633 2301

[email protected]
(0845) 6020422



Paradigm Family Law

  • Fixed Fees For Your Entire Case
  • Specialist Family Lawyers
  • Over 30 Years Experience
  • International Family Law Expertise
  • Professional Service & Pragmatic Advice

Recent Posts

  • International Divorce – Is Europe Falling Out of Love?
  • No Fault Divorce – The New System
  • Divorce Loans – Hard or Soft Option?
  • Friends With Your Ex – by Wendi Schuller
  • Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

Footer

Contact Us

Blake House, 18 Blake Street,
YORK YO1 8QH
(01904) 217225

10 Fitzroy Square
LONDON, W1T 5HP
020 3633 2301

[email protected]
(0845) 6020422



Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
 

Our Services

  • Fixed Fees
  • Divorce and Separation
  • Financial Disputes or Financial Remedy Proceedings
  • Breakdown Cover
  • Civil Partnership Breakdown
  • Children Matters
  • Mediation
  • Case Management

logos

Search

Paradigm Family Law is a Limited Liability Partnership, registered in England and Wales, with Partnership number OC392145. Our Registered Office is Blake House, 18 Blake Street, York, YO1 8QH. Members: James Thornton and Frank Arndt. The term partner is used to refer to a member of Paradigm Family Law LLP. We are authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA number 614031, and subject to the SRA Standards and Regulations which can be accessed at www.sra.org.uk

Privacy Policy · Terms of Business · Complaints | Copyright © 2020 Paradigm Family Law · Website hosting by Lift Legal Marketing · Login

This site tracks visits anonymously using cookies. Close this dialogue to confirm you are happy with that or find out more in the Privacy Policy. Agree and close
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

SAVE & ACCEPT