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@marypoppins Thank you for your comment on statistics and yes you are right they can be used to make any particular point, however you have picked up on the part of the point I was making and ignored another. The first is that the current system in the family courts is that a mother has possession of the children and the father applies for contact, thereby creating a situation where he has to prove he is a worthy parent and counter a raft of allegations from the mother. In the circumstance this could be funded by legal aid based on wholly unverified DV allegations. Then we have judges issuing orders they are not enforcing once the father proves his worth. This position is inequitable and unjust. Lets take this a step further and my data was designed to cause an eyebrow raise and its this point that courts, judges, the legal profession, Cafcass and legal aid have failed entirely to measure whether they are successful in producing a positive outcome. The only figures are the tangible ones we have the NSPCC ones are an example and there use was described by Tim Loughton MP as reprehensible (see hansard)as they describe the deaths in the care of each parent, the NSPCC then went on in its submission to state that shared parenting was a bad thing. Something not backed up by its own figures. The real question is why are the legal profession scared to measure their success? If family lawyers/Judges cared about children they would want it to be measured and would campaign for it, what better way to gain professional respect? They do not because it is a gravy train of child abuse they have all got fat on….

In terms of grasping the nettle this is an easy criticism to make, however I have been on the receiving end of plenty of irrelevant points that argue the indefensible from lawyers. I’ve received letters that misstate the law entirely, I help others and of the last 10 or 12 cases I’ve helped with where a family lawyer is involved misconduct by the lawyers and judges is rife. Yet there is no adequate recourse to the OJC, SRA or Resolution.

I agree it’s an emotional time, but I am glad you recognise there are bad lawyers(STOP PRESS!!  ), but this is accentuated by the inadequate process, ineffectual judges and poorly trained court & Cafcass staff.

I didn’t say no cases should have lawyers, I think I said most cases can be adequately run by an LiP with the exception of negligence. The only bit of any of these I have found challenging is cross examination. In one case I was cross examining a lawyer who’s junior had made a statement but had not turned up to trial, the lawyer was obstructive in the extreme and in my family case the ex’s father was screaming abuse at me, the Circuit Judge barely intervened. I asked for permission to bring a third party to do the cross examination and it was flatly refused so you cannot have it both ways, what is an LiP to do who cannot afford a lawyer and not qualify for legal aid?

J

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