Review Group's Report on Family Justice
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Review of Civil and Family Justice in Northern Ireland Review Group’s Report on Family Justice 171275 Judicial Studies Board_FNL (spne_11.5mm)cvr sprd_(A)__1.indd 1-3 11/08/2017 11:12 171275 Judicial Studies Board_FNL (spne_11.5mm)cvr sprd_(A)__1.indd 4-6 11/08/2017 11:12 Review of Civil and Family Justice in Northern Ireland Review Group’s Report on Family Justice September 2017 This is a Report by the Review Group, unless otherwise indicated. This is the approach that was agreed with the Group. We recommend that the Report, and the preliminary Report, be read in electronic rather than paper form. This will facilitate using the links. First published in 2017 by the Office of the Lord Chief Justice © Office of the Lord Chief Justice, 2017 Printed in Northern Ireland by CDS Print and Creative ii Contents (Click on heading to go to that page) Preface v Key recommendations ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Current context 11 3 Current system 16 4 International context 18 5 Single-tier system 23 6 Private law proceedings 29 7 Resolutions outside court 47 8 Divorce proceedings in Northern Ireland 60 9 Ancillary relief 68 10 Public law system 80 11 Secure accommodation orders 99 12 Problem-solving courts 107 13 Child abduction 115 14 Paperless courts 127 15 Disclosure 140 16 Voice of the child and vulnerable adults 143 17 Court setting 158 18 Open justice 162 19 Personal litigants 180 20 Family Justice Board 194 21 Conclusion 202 Appendix 1 Terms of reference 205 Appendix 2 Family statistics (October 2015) 209 iii Appendix 3 Family Bar Association civil justice review research 210 Appendix 4 New Zealand Care of Children Act 2004, s. 46O 238 Appendix 5 Memorandum by the President of the Family Division 239 Appendix 6 Practice guidance issued on 16 January 2014 241 Glossary 247 A note of gratitude 255 Family justice subcommittee 257 Consultees 258 Bibliography 263 iv Preface Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. Francis Bacon At the start of the legal year on 7 September 2015, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, the Right Honourable Sir Declan Morgan, announced that he had invited me to lead a fundamental review of the civil and family justice system in this jurisdiction. According to the terms of reference,1 the aim of the review of civil and family justice is to look fundamentally at current procedures for the administration of civil and family justice, with a view to: improving access to justice; achieving better outcomes for court users, particularly for children and young people; creating a more responsive and proportionate system; and making better use of available resources, including through the use of new technologies and greater opportunities for digital working. The last comprehensive review of the civil justice system in Northern Ireland2 was some 17 years ago, since which time there have been dramatic changes both in the environment within which the civil and family courts operate and in the public’s expectations about the services that should be available to them and how they should be delivered. Not surprisingly, therefore, there has been a great deal of ground to cover in this Review, as a consequence of which I have decided to produce two separate reports, with this first Report concerning the family justice system. It is my intention to publish a further report that will address a range of matters in relation to civil justice. That Report will look in more depth at opportunities for digital working as well as considering the governance and organisation of the courts, the structures needed to provide for the most effective management of court business and the respective jurisdictions of the various court tiers. In both tasks I have been very ably supported by a Review Group and a Reference Group, further details of which are contained in appendix 1. The Review Group is practitioner-focused and so includes members of the judiciary as well as representatives of the legal professions and the relevant government departments. The Reference Group was established to allow external stakeholder groups to provide their input. Members of the public were encouraged to contribute on the 1 See appendix 1. 2 Civil Justice Reform Group chaired by the Right Honourable Lord Justice Campbell, Review of the Civil Justice System in Northern Ireland: Final Report, Belfast, 2000. v basis of their personal experiences. The Review was, therefore, substantially informed by the views of interested stakeholders. A series of issues papers, covering key themes across the various court divisions and tiers within the family justice system, was produced by subcommittees of the Review Group that I set up to aid the task, as a means of providing the basis for an informed and inclusive debate. These issues papers, which were based on the ideas put forward for members’ consideration, have been amended, substituted and approved by the Review Group and the Reference Group. Those subcommittees proved invaluable, and I commend every member for the time and skill they invested in this process. Our role has not been to calculate the costs or savings that our recommendations will engender. In any event, at the time of writing, a budget has not yet been set for the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service and the Northern Ireland departments for 1 April 2017 onwards. Moreover, quantifying with any accuracy the costs of our proposals, or any anticipated savings from alternative approaches, was beyond our remit. Our role here was to identify a strategic blueprint, and it will be for the relevant department(s) to look at issues such as funding. We have endeavoured to highlight in broad terms where we see scope for efficiencies and invite them to consider a rebalancing of spend. A further crucial component of this Review was our determination to learn and benefit from the experience of other jurisdictions worldwide with similar legal backgrounds. Hence, we consulted personally and via electronic platforms with judiciary, members of the legal profession and legal and non-legal experts in the family justice systems together with a wide array of distinguished papers as far afield as England, Scotland, the Republic of Ireland, Guernsey, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA, South Africa, the Netherlands and Finland. The unstinting and timeless support that we received from all of these jurisdictions (acknowledged in detail later in this Review) is a testament to the internationalism of family justice and a monument to the concept of international cooperation. As I indicated each time I had the privilege to speak to the representatives of each nation, I fervently hope that one offshoot of this Review will be that the links now forged will remain intact as a harbinger of future relations and contacts between us for the mutual benefit of family justice in our countries. Finally, we were wary lest we crossed the boundary between review and policymaking. It is not appropriate for me as a member of the judiciary to comment on matters of government policy. As a judge, my role is to uphold the law in force from time to time. Nevertheless, it is an accepted convention that it is appropriate for the judiciary to comment on matters relating to the administration of justice and for the judiciary to point to possible unintended consequences of proposed government policy. That task we have willingly taken up. The Review Group produced a draft report in August 2016 that was widely circulated and made publicly available. Views were invited until 3 December 2016, vi and thereafter I consulted an array of persons and bodies who had responded. The response itself was enthusiastic in the main, and we have placed on our website a synthesis of virtually all the input we received. I have taken into account those views, and they have shaped in many instances the contents of this Report. This Review has placed a premium on public involvement from the outset. In many ways the public input has been the beating heart of this Review. Our aim of being as inclusive as possible explains why we set up a website and mailbox to allow members of the public to share their experiences with us as well as their ideas for how we can create a more modern and responsive system. I have chaired many committees in my legal and judicial career but none has been more assiduous and creative than the two main committees and the various subcommittees with which I have had the privilege to serve. I make it clear from the outset that any criticisms of our outcomes and recommendations should fall entirely on my shoulders. Not everything contained in this Report received unanimous approval during our meetings, and the only person bearing full responsibility for the final content of this document is me. The Office of Lord Chief Justice provided the secretariat for the Review. Without the informed, selfless and tireless commitment of Wendy Murray, Karen Caldwell, Julie McGrath and Maura Campbell this Report would never have been assembled much less completed. The Office of the Official Report (Hansard) in the Northern Ireland Assembly, particularly Phil Girvan, Nicola Murphy, Fintan Murray, Carina Rourke and Alison Webb, provided editorial support. The Right Honourable Lord Justice Gillen September 2017 vii viii Key recommendations This Report contains a large array of individual recommendations arising out of this far-reaching and inclusive exercise. We regard all of them as important and they fit a pattern of proposed reform. Nonetheless, we consider it useful to formulate at the outset the key or flagship recommendations around which the other reforms revolve.