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Whilst I value everybody's right to have their say and opinion has anyone actually bothered to read the report from the Judicial Executive Board. I have. The answers are compiled as the result of taking evidence from Judges from the Court of Appeal, High Court, Family Court, County Court and the tribunals. Not just general chit chat on a social forum.

Para 5.4 says that in family courts the judicial perception is that private law appointments where both sides are unrepresented typically take in the region of 50% longer so the courts are less able to hitherto to deal with the same volume of work and by an appreciable margin.

Para 5.7 says LiPs often do not understand practice and procedure, how to produce meaningful statements focussed on the relevant issues or how to differentiate between appropriate and hopelessly immaterial lines of inquiry. Delay is the inevitable consequence of the requirement for the judge to explain the basics of the statutory framework and the application of the fundamental principles.

Most damning in my view is at para 14 which says this:

"...50 respondents i.e. 78.1% gave at least one example of cases since April 2013 where the inability to order expert evidence had caused considerable difficulties, and often involving vulnerable parents. The most frequently occurring examples were:

a) the inability to order drugs and alcohol testing (including when recommended by CAFCASS) resulting in potentially inappropriate supervised contact, or none at all

b) parents with mental health difficulties who could not obtain public funding and whose present state of mind could not then be ascertained by the court

c) the inability to obtain police disclosure because neither party could afford the necessary fees

d) disputed paternity where neither party could pay for the necessary testing, and the child is left in the position of not knowing who his/her father is

c) allegations of sexual misconduct where it was not possible to order a risk assessment

MY CONCLUSION: who is failing these children - the parents or the state? There are real life vulnerable victims of the MOJ's decimation of access to justice.

Really ... is this about living beyond ones means. Think on ...

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