The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1993

N E W S

Marital Breakdown Seminar focuses on lack of resources

Reform of family law, of itself, would not be effective unless accompanied j by a greater allocation of resources and a radical improvement in facilities in the family law area, according to a number of speakers at a recent seminar j on "Marital Breakdown - the legal and ' social responses" staged by the Public Relations Committee of the Law Society. Law Reform, Mervyn Taylor, TD, noted that the recent census results showed that the number of persons in the separated category had increased from 37,245 in 1980 to 55,143 in 1991 - a rise of over 50%. A principal objective of his programme of family law reform would be to meet the challenge of making family law more relevant and accessible to the needs of the people, said the Minister. "Reform must necessarily reflect the many changes which have and are taking place in families and address the need families in distress and provide and strengthen avenues of redress, partic- ularly where a spouse fails to support and other spouse and the children of a marriage." The Minister stated that the Government was committed to holding ! a referendum on divorce in 1994. The Minister went on to outline his legislative programme including the Matrimonial Home Bill, and details of a Family Law Bill which he hopes to ! introduce in this Dail session. The Bill would enable the courts to order financial relief for a dependant party j and to redistribute property following ! the grant of a decree of nullity of | marriage. The Bill would also enable the courts in all proceedings | concerning maintenance of spouses and children, to order, subject to certain conditions, attachments of earnings on an automatic basis. The age of marriage would be raised in the In a keynote address to the seminar, on 9 October, the Minister for Equality & to protect, as far as possible, the institution of marriage, support

Bill from 16 to 18 years and it would include a requirement to give three months notice of marriage, he said. The Minister reported that proposals to amend the law on barring protection orders were currently under considera- tion with a view to extending the scope of the legislation and to enhance the rights of parties in non-marital unions. Turning to the Scheme of Civil Legal Aid and Advice, the Minister said that the grant to the Legal Aid Board for 1993 had almost been 20% higher than that for 1992 and he was confident that it would be higher again in 1994. He said that a Bill to put the Scheme of Civil Legal Aid on a statutory footing was in the process of being drafted. In his address to the seminar, Brian Sheridan , Solicitor and member of the Law Society Council, pointed to the dramatic social change that took place in October 1989 when the Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act came into force. Of greatest significance was the introduction of a no fault concept of 'marital break- down 1 as a grounds for a decree of judicial separation. The introduction of the obligation upon the solicitor to advise on the availability of marriage counselling and mediation services was also a significant development in the recognition of the complex process that is a marital breakdown. Another significant provision was the intro- duction in Section 15 of the Act of property transfer orders. He said that the marked social change in relation to marital breakdown was confirmed dramatically in the statistics of the Dublin Circuit Family Court. In the court year August 1987 to July Reform must be accompanied by funding and restructuring

1988, 36 decrees of divorce a mensa et thoro were granted, in the outgoing court year (July 1993) a total of 324 decrees of judicial separation were granted. Referring to the nationwide demand for legal aid, he stated that approxi- mately 200 legal aid certificates were granted in the calendar year 1989 for judicial separation proceedings. In the current year (1993) the number exceeded 600 and was rising. Brian Sheridan said "a three hundred percent increase in demand for legal aid in these cases has not been met by a 300% increase in Legal Aid Board funding and resources. "On present figures it is safe to estimate that there will be approxi- mately 500 applications for judicial separation issued in the Dublin Circuit Court in the current court year 1993/ 94. There are only approximately 150 hearing dates. There is currently one Circuit Court judge assigned to the Circuit Family Court in Dublin and support staff has not increased for some time. The demands on the country-wide Circuit Family Court network are even more acute. "In short, the dramatic social change has not been matched as yet by appropriate funding and has not been mirrored in the structure of our legal system. Decisions affecting the lives of many are made within a framework of ridiculously crowded court lists, total understaffing and a virtual complete lack of support services. Does society have the will to give financial priority to the funding of a proper family court system? The answer at present is 'no'. Society must face up to the change and 'fund' accordingly," stated Brian Sheridan. Addressing the seminar, Mary \ O'Toole, BL, said the whole question of facilities for family law cases was a burning issue. She mentioned for

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