Compulsion required for mediation to work, concludes Constitutional Affairs Committee

The Constitutional Affairs select committee has published a short report on the progress of initiatives in the family courts. It follows a day of oral evidence on 2 May given by the President, Sir Mark Potter, with the help of Mr Justice Munby, District Judge Nicholas Crichton and Audrey Damazer from the Justices' Clerks Society.

The report tackles several issues including court transparency and funding but reserves some of the heaviest criticism for the Family Court Resolution pilot project branding it a 'failure' and urging some form of compulsion for both private and publicly funded couples.

The committee was pleased 'that there appears to be some movement on the issue of transparency' but also warned that funding difficulties were causing delay and hoped

'that the Department will facilitate the "cascading down" of cases to the Family Proceedings Courts, as suggested by the judiciary. To do this, it needs to provide sufficient legal advisers, ensure that any vacancies continue to be filled and remedy the lack of additional District Judges (Magistrates Court) working full time on family cases.'

The full text of the report can be found on the Parliament website

12 June 2006

• Keywords:
• procedure