How To Avoid The Family Court Backlog
The Family Court is continuing to experience a serious backlog, with some estimates putting the outstanding cases at over 110,000. This means that court proceedings are taking over 43 weeks to reach a final hearing on average, and in many cases taking much longer. Owing to the pressures on the court and lack of judges sometimes cases are taken out of the court list at less than 24 hours’ notice often after a busy period of preparing and making sure everything is ready in time. You might be surprised to hear that the courts can do this but it is happening with increasing regularity. How to avoid the Family Court backlog.
For immediate assistance, please call us now on 01572 490 660 or complete a Free Online Enquiry. We look at alternative options. Typically, a divorce will have three issues to be resolved;
- Dissolving the marriage – the divorce;
- Sorting out the finances and
- Resolving child arrangements.
Whilst thankfully the divorce process itself is more straightforward following the introduction of no fault based divorce you must nevertheless use the court to formalise your separation and to have a financial order approved. Often arrangements for children can be agreed and a court order may not always be necessary.
James has been acting for my sister with her divorce. I was present at the first meeting and was impressed and pleased with the way he got her to open up and talk to him in a way that I have seldom seen her do. James has been very firm and honest with my sister throughout the process, guiding her to make difficult decisions, and acting in an empathic and professional manner at all times. I would be very happy to recommend James to anyone going through a similar situation. Mr P, Leicestershire
If you are going through a divorce, there may well be issues that you and your former partner cannot agree upon. Common points of dispute include what will happen to your shared home, how assets will be divided, who will take responsibility for debts and what arrangements will be made for your children. It is very important to address these issues now to give you and your family certainty for the future. By way of example, if you do not have a financial order in place, your former spouse could make a claim against you many years from now. This is something which is often misunderstood. Just because you are divorced does not mean your finances are sorted out. It has always been the courts’ preference that disputes are resolved by the parties without the need for litigation wherever possible. This has become ever more important as the court backlog grows. Fortunately, there are several ways of dealing with disagreements that are usually successful, meaning you would not have to have a court hearing.
Negotiation
An experienced family lawyer will be able to identify key issues in dispute and negotiate on your behalf with your former partner’s solicitor. This will enable you to see exactly what is important to you and what you are prepared to compromise over. In a recent judgment*, a family court judge criticised the use of the family courts to micro-manage disputes. He gave examples he had heard over the previous month where he had been asked to decide (i) at which junction of the M4 a child should be handed over for contact (ii) which parent should look after children’s passports, when there was no suggestion that either would leave the jurisdiction and (iii) how should Sunday afternoon contact be arranged. Your family solicitor should be able to work on your behalf to make these types of arrangements, avoiding the need to involve the family courts and deal with the substantial delays for a hearing.
Mediation
Where negotiation is unsuccessful, the next step is usually mediation. It is generally a legal requirement to consider mediation before starting litigation unless domestic violence is an issue. As well as being quicker than litigation, mediation is more cost-effective and can help reduce conflict. During mediation, a professional mediator will work with you both to help you explore the options open to you. If you choose to agree on a way forward, this can be sealed into a binding order by the court, which takes less time than a court hearing. If you are not able to agree, then you will not have an unwanted outcome imposed on you.
Collaborative law
Collaborative law is a form of alternative dispute resolution that involves sitting down together with your solicitor, who will generally be specially trained in collaborative law, your former partner and their solicitor to go through the disputed issues and try and work out a solution. You can also involve other experts, such as a financial adviser, accountant or specialist in children’s issues. You will sign an agreement committing to try and resolve matters collaboratively. Should your case ultimately end up in court, you would have a different legal representative to avoid any conflict of interest.
Private Hearings
These are increasingly common and, in our experience, successful. They involve appointing a “judge” often an experienced barrister who guides those facing divorce on what he or she may order if they were determining the case. The advantage of this is that it gives those facing separation the benefit of a neutral view and highlights the common ground between them which leads to quicker resolution.
Arbitration
Arbitration can be thought of as a private court paid for by you and your former partner. The arbitrator’s decision will be binding, in a similar way to a court order. The advantages include the fact that the process is quicker and easier to arrange, you can suggest dates that are suitable for you and it is unlikely to be called off at the last minute, which can happen at court after you have paid for your barrister to be briefed and ready. You can also choose the venue or decide to have the matter dealt with in writing if you prefer. Where you can agree on some issues, you can instruct the arbitrator to just address those that you cannot agree on. Early advice is crucial to save you costs and sometimes making costly mistakes which are difficult to unravel. Finally, we have in the past experienced situations where we have been instructed late on in the process. In one case a client, before they sought advice from us, threatened their spouse’s solicitor that if an offer wasn’t accepted then they should make an application to the court. The other party’s solicitor did exactly that meaning that significant costs were incurred by both sides. This then made settlement more difficult to achieve. Had we been involved from the outset these costs would not have been incurred and settlement achieved much sooner with considerably less stress for the family.
Contact us
If you would like to speak to one of our specialist family lawyers, whether that be a mediator, we have three, or a collaborative lawyer or you want some sound initial guidance over what is or what is not necessary please ring us on 01572 490 660 or complete a Free Online Enquiry. We look forward to hearing from you and helping you achieve peace of mind.
* Re B (A Child) (Unnecessary Private Law Applications) [2020] EWFC B44
When I started on the process of divorce after a long marriage I was given 2 bits of very valuable advice. The first was the importance of having a strong team of people around you including friends, family as well as the range of professionals that you also need. The second piece of advice was to go and see James Belderbos. James has provided me with excellent guidance, he listened to what I wanted and then gave me reasonable and realistic, sometimes hard to swallow but always well thought out and above all honest information and help. I truly believe that James cares about his clients and as a result I believe that I arrived at the best outcome for all parties. Mr W, Leicestershire
