Solicitors this week welcomed proposals to allow lay magistrates to specialise in family cases - but said the government should make it easier for solicitors to become specialist family district judges.

Under the proposals, which were put out to consultation by the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), magistrates would no longer be required to hear criminal cases as well as family proceedings.


Magistrates would still have to demonstrate competence in the criminal field before being allowed to specialise in family cases. The consultation also considers whether there should be changes to the minimum and maximum number of days that a magistrate can sit.


Christina Blacklaws, chairwoman of the Law Society's family law committee, welcomed the extra training for lay magistrates. However, she added: 'The best way to attack the problems of delay is to get more professional judges in the Family Proceedings Courts (FPC), where there is a dearth. But family solicitors who might be interested in becoming specialist family district judges are put off by the fact that they would have to sit in the criminal court first. The consultation does not address this.'


Rosemary Carter, Law Society Council member for family law, said: 'Given that the DCA and senior judges are intent on ensuring that family cases are dealt with at the lowest level, it can only be in the interests of clients, solicitors and barristers if magistrates are allowed to specialise in family work, and to sit for longer if they wish to do so.'


Resolution vice-chairman Andrew Greensmith said: 'Magistrates who handle family matters ought to spend all their time on family matters. [Otherwise] it is inevitable that the public associates criminal law with family law, and the two things should be entirely separate.'