Download or read book Mapping Paths to Family Justice written by Anne Barlow and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The family justice system in England and Wales has undergone radical change over the past 20 years. A significant part of this shifting landscape has been an increasing emphasis on settling private family disputes out of court, which has been embraced by policy-makers, judges and practitioners alike and is promoted as an unqualified good. Mapping Paths to Family Justice: Resolving Family Disputes in Neoliberal Times examines the experiences of people taking part in out-of-court family dispute resolution in England and Wales. It addresses questions such as how participants’ experiences match up to the ideal; how recent changes to the legal system have affected people’s ability to access out-of-court dispute resolution; and what kind of outcomes are achieved in family dispute resolution. This book is the first study systematically to compare different forms of family dispute resolution. It explores people’s experiences of solicitor negotiations, mediation and collaborative law empirically by analyzing findings from a nationally representative survey, individual in-depth interviews with parties and practitioners, and recorded family dispute resolution processes. It considers these in the context of ongoing neoliberal reforms to the family justice system, drawing out conclusions and implications for policy and practice.
Download or read book Family Mediation Contemporary Issues written by Marian Roberts and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-05-21 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern emergence of mediation in the West in the 1980s represents a profound transformation of civil disputing practice, particularly in the field of family justice. In the field of family disputes mediation has emerged to fill a gap which none of the existing services, lawyers and courts on the one hand, or welfare, advisory or therapeutic interventions on the other, could in their nature have filled. In the UK mediation is now the approved pathway in the current landscape of family dispute resolution processes, officially endorsed and publicly funded by government to provide separating and divorcing families with the opportunity to resolve their disputes co-operatively with less acrimony, delay and cost than the traditional competitive litigation and court process. The consolidation of the professional practice of family mediation reflects its progress and creativity in respect both of the expanding focus on professional quality assurance as well as on developments of policy, practice guidelines and training to address central concerns about the role of children in mediation, screening for domestic abuse, sexual orientation and gender identity as well as cross-cultural issues including the role of interpreters in the process. Other areas of innovation include the application of family mediation to a growing range of family conflict situations involving, for example, international family disputes (including cross border, relocation and child abduction issues). Written by leaders in family mediation, this title provides a contemporary account of current practice developments and research concerning family mediation across a range of issues in the UK and Ireland.
Download or read book Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century written by Mavis Maclean and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-08-27 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book What Is a Family Justice System For written by Mavis Maclean and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-08-25 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does a justice system have a welfare function? If so, where does the boundary lie between justice and welfare, and where can the necessary resources and expertise be found? In a time of austerity, medical emergency, and limited public funding, this book explores the role of the family justice system and asks whether it has a function beyond decision-making in dispute resolution. Might a family justice system even help to prevent or minimise conflict as well as resolving dispute when it arises? The book is divided into 4 parts, with contributions from 22 legal scholars working across Europe, Australia, Argentina and Canada. - Part 1 looks at what constitutes a family justice system in different jurisdictions, and how a welfare element is included in the legal framework. - Part 2 looks at those engaged with a family justice system as professionals and users, and explores how far private ordering is encouraged in different countries. - Part 3 looks at new ways of working within a family justice system and raises the question of whether the move towards privatisation derives from the intrinsic value of individual autonomy and acceptance of responsibility in family disputes, or whether it is also a response to the increasing burden on the state of providing a welfare-minded family justice system. - Part 4 explores recent major changes of direction for the family justice systems of Australia, Argentina, Turkey, Spain, and Germany.
Download or read book Collaborative Practice written by Connie Healy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collaborative practice is a new method of dispute resolution, used mainly in family law matters. By taking a non-adversarial approach, it challenges the strictly positivist view of the lawyer as ‘zealous advocate’ for the client. As such, it has received much criticism from the established Bar and legal profession. This book provides a doctrinal and empirical analysis of collaborative practice with a view to assessing its place within the dispute resolution continuum and addressing whether this criticism has been justified. It begins by establishing the theoretical underpinnings of conflict and differing approaches to conflict resolution, the impact of the comprehensive law movement and therapeutic jurisprudence. The origins and development of the collaborative process and the framework it provides for a multidisciplinary approach to conflict resolution is outlined. The book addresses the examination of the process undertaken in the lead up to the enactment of the Uniform Collaborative Law Act in 2010; now regarded as a model of best practice. Finally, through an examination of empirical research undertaken in the US, Canada and in England and Wales, and in presenting the results of the first known empirical research into the process in an Irish family law context, the book concludes with an evidenced based analysis of the process from the perspective of couples who chose to use the collaborative model to resolve the issues surrounding their relationship breakdown, collaborative lawyers and lawyers who do not advocate a non-adversarial approach. As such this book provides a valuable insight into the process which will be of interest to: academics; practising lawyers; members of the judiciary; researchers in the fields of conflict resolution and family law and for students studying alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
Download or read book Digital Family Justice written by Mavis Maclean and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The editors' earlier book Delivering Family Justice in the 21st Century (2016) described a period of turbulence in family justice arising from financial austerity. Governments across the world have sought to reduce public spending on private quarrels by promoting mediation (ADR) and by beginning to look at digital justice (ODR) as alternatives to courts and lawyers. But this book describes how mediation has failed to take the place of courts and lawyers, even where public funding for legal help has been removed. Instead ODR has developed rapidly, led by the Dutch Rechtwijzer. The authors question the speed of this development, and stress the need for careful evaluation of how far these services can meet the needs of divorcing families. In this book, experts from Canada, Australia, Turkey, Spain, Germany, France, Poland, Scotland, and England and Wales explore how ADR has fallen behind, and how we have learned from the rise and fall of ODR in the Rechtwijzer about what digital justice can and cannot achieve. Managing procedure and process? Yes. Dispute resolution? Not yet. The authors end by raising broader questions about the role of a family justice system: is it dispute resolution? Or dispute prevention, management, and above all legal protection of the vulnerable?
Download or read book Contemporary Family Justice written by Kim Holt and published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Demonstrating how the law and statutory guidance applies in practice, this book is a critical account of current family justice policy and practice. It draws on recent legislation, case law and research findings to provide clear, accessible information and advice on how to make the difficult decisions in pre-proceedings child care practice work. With reference to child protection legislation and practice frameworks, this book highlights the importance of undertaking informed and effective assessments based on the best outcome for the child. The book acknowledges the constraints facing practitioners, such as working under considerable pressure within tight time frames and focuses on the issues which commonly present as challenges for practice, such as neglect, child sexual exploitation and pre-birth assessments. This is essential reading for students and practitioners in social work and law, as well as policy-makers and other professionals concerned with the current state of child welfare.
Download or read book Children in Custody Disputes written by Anna Kaldal and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2024-01-08 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book explores how legal proceedings in and out-of-court can be matched to the complex problems underlying disputes concerning child custody, residence and contact between parents. It focusses in particular on Nordic experiences of in and out-of-court mechanisms as means of resolving custody disputes. The contributors are internationally renowned and experienced researchers from the legal, psychological, and sociological fields who provide empirical as well as legal perspectives. They examine central legal, ethical and knowledge-based dilemmas in custody dispute proceedings. The findings speak to an international audience and suggest ways how to best realize the interests of the child. It transcends disciplinary, institutional, and jurisdictional boundaries in search of new knowledge.
Download or read book Litigants in Person and the Family Justice System written by Jessica Mant and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about those who represent themselves as Litigants in Person in the family justice system. It calls for a refocusing of the debate about the historical challenges associated with Litigants in Person as well as the role they should play within the family justice system in England and Wales. Drawing together interviews with Litigants in Person and decades of research into self-representation from across multiple jurisdictions, this book provides an account of the family justice system through the eyes of its users. It employs an innovative socio-legal framework comprising feminist theory, a Bourdieusian theory of class, vulnerability theory, and actor-network theory to explore the journey that Litigants in Person take through the legal, cultural and social context of the family court. It provides fresh insight into the diverse challenges that people face within this process and how these relate to wider pressures within the family justice system. It argues that there are important lessons to be learned from Litigants in Person. By understanding how and why people come to the point of self-representing, and the kinds of experiences they have when they do, the book advocates the importance of forging a more positive and effective relationship between Litigants in Person and the family justice system.
Download or read book Cohabitation Marriage and the Law written by Anne Barlow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2005-06-23 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmarried heterosexual cohabitation is rapidly increasing in Britain and over a quarter of children are now born to unmarried cohabiting parents. This is not just an important change in the way we live in modern Britain; it is also a political and theoretical marker. Some commentators see cohabitation as evidence of selfish individualism and the breakdown of the family, while others see it as just a less institutionalised way in which people express commitment and build their families. Politically, 'stable' families are seen as crucial - but does stability simply mean marriage? At present the law in Britain retains important distinctions in the way it treats cohabiting and married families and this can have deleterious effects on the welfare of children and partners on cohabitation breakdown or death of a partner. Should the law be changed to reflect this changing social reality? Or should it - can it - be used to direct these changes? Using findings from their recent Nuffield Foundation funded study, which combines nationally representative data with in-depth qualitative work, the authors examine public attitudes about cohabitation and marriage, provide an analysis of who cohabits and who marries, and investigate the extent and nature of the 'common law marriage myth' (the false belief that cohabitants have similar legal rights to married couples). They then explore why people cohabit rather than marry, what the nature of their commitment is to one another and chart public attitudes to legal change. In the light of this evidence, the book then evaluates different options for legal reform.
Download or read book Children s Voices Family Disputes and Child Inclusive Mediation written by Anne Barlow and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2024-05-28 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ePDF and ePUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Considered from a children’s rights perspective, this book provides a critical socio-legal account of child-inclusive mediation (CIM) practice. It draws on interviews with relationship professionals, mediators, parents and children to consider the risks and benefits of CIM.
Download or read book Access to Justice and Legal Aid written by Asher Flynn and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers how access to justice is affected by restrictions to legal aid budgets and increasingly prescriptive service guidelines. As common law jurisdictions, England and Wales and Australia, share similar ideals, policies and practices, but they differ in aspects of their legal and political culture, in the nature of the communities they serve and in their approaches to providing access to justice. These jurisdictions thus provide us with different perspectives on what constitutes justice and how we might seek to overcome the burgeoning crisis in unmet legal need. The book fills an important gap in existing scholarship as the first to bring together new empirical and theoretical knowledge examining different responses to legal aid crises both in the domestic and comparative contexts, across criminal, civil and family law. It achieves this by examining the broader social, political, legal, health and welfare impacts of legal aid cuts and prescriptive service guidelines. Across both jurisdictions, this work suggests that it is the most vulnerable groups who lose out in the way the law now operates in the twenty-first century. This book is essential reading for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers interested in criminal and civil justice, access to justice, the provision of legal assistance and legal aid.
Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Family Law written by Shazia Choudhry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-31 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Families and family law have encountered significant challenges in the face of rapid changes in social norms, demographics and political expectations. The Cambridge Companion to Comparative Family Law highlights the key questions and themes that have faced family lawyers across the world. Each chapter is written by internationally renowned academic experts and focuses on which of these themes are most significant to their jurisdictions. In taking this jurisdictional approach, the collection will explore how different countries have tackled these issues. As a result, the collection is aimed at students, practitioners and academics across a variety of disciplines interested in the key issues faced by family law around the world and how they have been addressed.
Download or read book Family Justice written by John Eekelaar and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Family Justice Review written by Family Justice Review and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-28 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Family Justice Review examines the effectiveness of the family justice system and the outcomes it delivers. The review covers both public and private law cases; explores if better use can be made of mediation and how best to support contact between children and non-resident parents or grandparents; examines the processes (but not the law) involved in granting divorces and awarding ancillary relief, and looks at how the different parts of the family justice system are organised and managed. The review is aiming to produce a system which allows families to reach easy, simple and efficient agreements which are in the best interests of children whilst protecting children and vulnerable adults from risk of harm. The agencies and professionals directly involved in the family justice system are all in scope for the Review. This final report takes into account views expressed during the consultation on the interim report and the call for evidence. It makes a number of recommendations to improve public and private law and looks at how the agencies within the family justice system could work together more effectively to improve the experience for children and families
Download or read book Family Justice Review written by Family Justice Review and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-04 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Mediation in Family Disputes written by Ms Marian Roberts and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-12-28 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the authoritative textbook on family mediation. It draws on a wide cross-disciplinary theoretical literature and on the author's extensive and continuing practice experience. It encompasses developments in policy, research and practice in the UK and beyond. First published in 1988 as a pioneering work, this fourth edition has been fully updated to incorporate legal and policy developments in the UK and in Europe, new sociological and philosophical perspectives on respect, justice and conflict, and international research and practice innovations.
