The Gazette 1983

INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY OF IRELAND GAZETTE Vol. 77. No. 6. July/August 1983

Family Law —, Coping with the Growth

S ome interesting statistics on the number of Family Law cases were given in the Dail last June by the Minister for Justice in a series of Replies to Questions from Dr. Michael Woods. The statistics are set out on page 166. It should be noted that, while the trend is clearly on the increase, the latest figures are artificially reduced by the impact of the recent Court Clerks' dis- pute. Two obvious conclusions may be drawn from the published figures. Firstly, that Family Law cases are on the increase, and. secondly, that the Courts dealing with these types of cases must be geared to cope with the in- crease. Now that the changes brought about by the Courts Act 1981 are fully operational and the District and Circuit Courts are the primary Courts dealing with Maintenance, Barring and Guardianship cases, the question must be asked whether those Courts will be able to cope, without adversely affecting the handling of other types of cases. In recent years, the administrative efficiency of the Dublin Circuit Court has been the subject of well- deserved praise - due in no small way to the President of the Circuit Court. Mr. Justice Neylon - with civil actions coming on for hearing within weeks of notice of trial being served. Howe v e r, the Circuit Court in Dublin is already feeling the administrative strain of the new Family Law jurisdiction. One fully-fought Family Law case can be expected to last two to three days. What then happens to the number of civil actions which could be disposed of in the same period of Court time? The same query applies equally to the Dublin Metropolitan District Court and, perhaps in a lesser way, to every Circuit and District Court in the country. In their very nature. Family Law cases must receive priority in the Court listing system. There is, therefore, an immediate need for the appointment of several new

Circuit Judges and District Justices - primarily for the Dublin area but, if required, movable on an 'ad hoc' basis, to deal with such cases in other parts of the country. In the longer term, serious consideration must be given to the establishment of a "Family Court", which could be based on the present Circuit Court structure, which would have jurisdiction at first instance in all Family Law matters, to be serviced by Circuit Judges who would soon become "specialised" in such cases and who would, in turn, have a specialist back-up staff to assist them. There is, of course, another possible way of dealing with the growth of Family Law cases, which take up so much of the time of our Courts - that is by the provision of a Family Conciliation Service, which would assist the parties to an irretrievably broken-down marriage amicably to resolve their differences. At a recent Family Law Symposium in Sligo, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice, Mrs. Nuala Fennell, strongly supported the setting up of such a Conciliation Service on the lines of the now well-established prototype, the Bristol Family Court Conciliation Service. The Minister rightly made reference to the reality that, whereas the role of each party to a broken marriage may have ended as a marraige partner, their respective roles as parents continued. How often must the obvious be reiterated that the Courts' system of adjudication on Family Law disputes, by its very nature, gives rise to confrontation rather than conciliation - resulting more often than not in mutual dissatisfaction and unhappiness, with innocent children the ultimate sufferers? How much better for trained conciliators to resolve with the parties themselves the issues of custody and access to children, maintenance and property entitlement - with agreement so reached being -given subsequent sanction by the Court. Ag r e emen ts reached amicably and rationally are more likely to be honoured in spirit and in fact than imposed solutions, following a bloodletting session in Court. •