Last year, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) started its plans to make the courts self-funding. The cost of application fees payable by local authorities in care and adoption proceedings increased by an impressive 3200%, from £150 to £4,825.

Hidden on the website of Her Majesty’s Court Service is a consultation paper on plans to increase fees payable in civil court proceedings including enforcement fees in the family courts. The closing date for consultations is 4th March 2009.

Justice in the family courts is already suffering. Legal aid cutbacks have led to fewer firms of solicitors being prepared to undertake funded work and the Legal Services Commission’s funding for contact activities being cut from April.

CAFCASS (the court welfare service) received three critical inspection reports from OFSTED in 2008 but are being asked to take responsibility for a host of new services with little additional funding. In some areas, if a Judge asks for a welfare report into a family’s circumstances, there is already a 20 week delay before a CAFCASS officer can even be allocated.

In Sept ’08, an article in The Times covering a day in the life of Mr Justice Hedley recorded: ‘presented with four lever-arch files, Mr Justice Hedley had just minutes to grapple with the new case. In one month he has dealt with about 100 such cases.‘ When mistakes are made due to there being limited time to consider evidence or due to a poorly conducted CAFCASS investigation, the costs of appealing a judgment are already prohibitive.

Application fees and the cost of a transcript (required for making an appeal) can easily be over £1,000, and that is before the cost of solicitors and barristers. The family courts are becoming the preserve of the very rich or poor (but only if legal aid solicitor can be found).

In 2007, UNICEF found the United Kingdom to have the unhappiest children in the developed world. February’s Research Report from the Children’s Society concluded that children are 40% more likely to suffer mental health problems if denied contact with their fathers.

Their research confirms earlier studies (PDF) which showed that children do better academically where both parents are involved in their education. The researchers expressed concern that 28% of non-resident parents lose contact with their children after having been separated for three years.

When one parent blocks contact, the children suffer until their parents can access the courts, but the courts are becoming increasingly inaccessible.

The Government is failing in its duty under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child to support a child’s right to both parents. Cuts to legal aid and court services, a lack of funding/resources for CAFCASS and increases to court fees go entirely against the state’s legal duty under the Convention.

As a first step, the increases to court fees in family cases need to be stopped, and better, abolished entirely. I would ask you to join me in replying to the Government’s consultation paper, and details can be found on my website www.thecustodyminefield.com.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   New blog post: Help stop family court fees increasing http://tinyurl.com/de3of7

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