Family law system ‘confusing and hard to navigate’

The family law system is “broken”, and is in need of legislative reform, the Oireachtas justice committee has heard.

Family law system ‘confusing and hard to navigate’

The family law system is “broken”, and is in need of legislative reform, the Oireachtas justice committee has heard.

The committee yesterday heard from experts from legal, childcare, and sexual violence backgrounds who all support the establishment of specialised family courts.

Conor O’Mahony, senior lecturer at UCC’s School of Law, said Article 42A of the Constitution requires that in court cases involving children, the views of any child who is capable of forming his or her own views should be heard.

Mr O’Mahony said this is not the case at present, and that legislative reform is required to address the “uneven and patchwork” approach to whether a child participates in a case.

“Article 42A is not self-executing; its implementation is dependent on legislation,” Mr O’Mahony said. Unfortunately, since Article 42A came into effect in 2015, the legislative response of the Oireachtas has been, I would argue, rather timid.

“Essentially, whether a child is afforded the opportunity to be heard depends at the moment on what the case is about, where it is being heard, which judge is hearing it, and who is paying the costs, and that is a far cry from what the Constitution states should happen.”

The Children’s Rights Alliance said it has found children and families find the family law system “confusing, daunting and hard to navigate”.

It also criticised the physical environment in which family law cases are held, saying that proceedings involving children, subject to the in-camera rule, are held in areas lacking privacy.

“Judges are making decisions in courts around the country about intimate family issues often in the same room as they are dealing with other matters such as criminal law,” Saoirse Brady said its submission.

The Law Society described family law as “broken”. It questioned whether existing court infrastructure is suitable for children and highlighted last December’s security incident during which a judge and others were taken hostage as an example of the conditions that make the courts unsafe premises for family law.

The society further queried whether the role of fathers is being adequately and fairly treated within the family law system.

The Rape Crisis Network of Ireland said its three priorities in the area of family law reform are the establishment of a specialist family court, transparency and accountability of the child protection system and the family law system, and the development of a national strategy on child sexual violence.

Cliona Sadléar said Family Court Services process, on average, 11,600 cases involving guardianship, custody and access matters, and that the number of these involving child sexual violence “should not be a matter of a guesstimate”.

“The fact is our family courts are handling highly criminal matters of the most sensitive and urgent child protection nature in unknown numbers, without criminal authority, without the appropriate tools and in the absence of appropriate specialisation,” she said.

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