Draft Legislation on Family Justice

Draft Legislation on Family Justice
Author: Great Britain: Department for Education
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2012-09-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780101843720

The Government responded to the Family Justice Review (Norgrove report, November 2011, ISBN 9780108511158) in February 2012 (Cm. 8273, ISBN 9780101827324). The current system is characterised by delay, expense, bureaucracy and lack of trust. This paper sets out the draft legislation to bring the Government's policies into effect. The proposals would reduce delay and duplication, with a maximum time limit of 26 weeks for completing care and supervision proceedings. Case management decisions would have to consider the impact on the welfare of the child, and the courts should focus only on the provisions of the care plan that set out the long term plan for the upbringing of the child. The legislation covers: family mediation information and assessment meetings; child arrangements orders; control of expert evidence, and of assessments, in children proceedings; time limits in proceedings for care or supervision orders; care plans; care proceedings and care plans, regulations and procedural requirements; repeal of restrictions on divorce and dissolution etc where there are children; repeal of uncommenced provisions of Part 2 of the Family Law Act 1996.

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Model Rules of Professional Conduct
Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2007
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781590318737

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century

Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century
Author: Mavis Maclean
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2015-08-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782259716

Family justice requires not only a legal framework within which personal obligations are regulated over the life course, but also a justice system which can deliver legal information, advice and support at times of change of status or family stress, together with mechanisms for negotiation, dispute management and resolution, with adjudication as the last resort. The past few years have seen unparalleled turbulence in the way family justice systems function. These changes are associated with economic constraints in many countries, including England and Wales, where legal aid for private family matters has largely disappeared. But there is also a change in ideology in a number of jurisdictions, including Canada, towards what is sometimes called neo-liberalism, whereby the state seeks to reduce its area of activity while at the same time maintaining strong views on family values. Legal services may become fragmented and marketised, and the role of law and lawyers reduced, while self-help web based services expand. The contributors to this volume share their anxieties about the impact on the ability of individuals to achieve fair and informed resolution in family matters.

Family Justice Review

Family Justice Review
Author: Family Justice Review
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2011-04
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9780108510557

The legal framework of family justice in England and Wales is strong. Its principles are right, in particular the starting point that the welfare of children must be paramount. Every year 500,000 parents and children are involved in the system. But the system is under great strain: cases take far too long (the average case took 53 weeks in 2010); too many private law disputes end up in court; the system lacks coherence; there is growing mistrust leading to layers of checking and scrutiny; little mutual learning or feedback; a worrying lack of IT and management information. The Review's recommendations aim: to bring greater coherence through organisational change and better management; making the system more able to cope with current and future pressures; to reduce duplication of scrutiny to the appropriate level; and to divert more issues away from the courts. The chapters of the review cover: the current system; the proposed Family Justice Service; public law; private law; financial implications and implementation; and there are eighteen annexes. The proposals are now out for consultation, with the final report due in autumn 2011.

The Justice Crisis

The Justice Crisis
Author: Trevor C.W. Farrow
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0774863609

Unfulfilled legal needs are at a tipping point in much of the Canadian justice system. The Justice Crisis assesses what is and isn’t working in efforts to strengthen a fundamental right of democratic citizenship: access to civil and family justice. Contributors to this wide-ranging overview of recent empirical research address key issues: the extent and cost of unmet legal needs; the role of public funding; connections between legal and social exclusion among vulnerable populations; the value of new legal pathways; the provision of justice services beyond the courts and lawyers; and the need for a culture change within the justice system.

Family Justice

Family Justice
Author: John Eekelaar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2013-06-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1782253491

This book is about the delivery of family justice in England and Wales, focusing on the work of the family judiciary in the lower courts. The policy context is moving so rapidly that the authors have gone beyond presenting their empirical findings to offer a broader consideration of the nature and role of the family justice system, as these are in danger of being lost amid present reform proposals. The first four chapters are historical and comparative, examining assumptions about family justice and offering a defence of the role of legal rights in family life, and the importance of good policy-making balancing outcome- and behaviour-focused approaches to family justice. Comparative examples from the US and Australia show how new approaches to family justice can be successfully deployed. The next three chapters are empirical, including a typology of the roles played and tasks addressed by the judges, overturning the commonly held assumption that the central judicial role is adjudication, emphasising the extent to which judges integrate outcome- and behaviour-focused approaches to family justice, and giving a detailed account of the daily work of circuit and district judges and legal advisers. The conclusion is that there is a trend across jurisdictions, driven by technological innovation and by economic constraints, to reduce the role of courts and lawyers in favour of individual choices based on private or government-funded information sources. While these developments can be beneficial, they also have dangers and limitations. The final chapter argues that despite the move to privatised forms of dispute resolution, family justice still demands a sound judicial structure.

Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the Children and Families Bill

Pre-legislative Scrutiny of the Children and Families Bill
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Justice Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2012-12-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780215051097

Additional written evidence is contained in Volume 2, available on the Committee website at www.parliament.uk/justicecttee

What is The Family of Law?

What is The Family of Law?
Author: Alan Brown
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2019-02-07
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1509919597

This book argues that the legal understanding of 'family' in the UK continues to be underpinned by the idealised image of the 'nuclear family', premised upon the traditional, gendered roles of 'father as breadwinner' and 'mother as homemaker'. This examination of the law's model of the 'family' has been prompted by the substantial reforms that have taken place in family law in recent decades, and the significant evolution in social attitudes and familial practices that has occurred in parallel. Throughout the book, the influence of the nuclear family is noted in several different contexts: various specific legal definitions of 'family', the legal regulation of adult, conjugal relationships, the attribution of legal parenthood and the construction of the role of the 'parent' within the law. Ultimately, this book argues that while these reforms have resulted in additional categories of relationship coming to be situated within the nuclear family model, there has not, as yet, been any fundamental alteration of the underpinning concept of the nuclear family itself. This book concludes by considering the possibilities offered beyond the 'nuclear family'; exploring the reconceptualising of the legal understanding of 'family' around alternative and potentially 'radical' models of 'family'.