Report comment

I used to do these applications a very long time ago ( on legal aid and usually with a barrister who is now a very senior commercial judge - nb Judges are not out of touch). Quite apart from the extreme difficulty of trying to work out who is telling the truth (which task I would have thought would generally be helped by letting the abuser cross examine and reveal himself thereby for what he is ), Judges have enormous lists and much less help from lawyers than they have ever had before. We would all like the system to be miraculously strawberry flavoured, but this call is simply a function of women's refuges trying to do what we do, ie moving the Court to protect our clients and finding out that it is simply very difficult. The Judges ARE taking it seriously, but they are human and sometimes get it wrong.