The importance of seeking early family law legal advice and, where possible, settling non-contentiously – for example, via alternative dispute resolution such as mediation – has been brought to the fore by the latest estimates from HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) which show that it is likely to take around three years for courts to return to pre-Covid caseload levels.
Inevitably, this means that there is a significant backlog, and The Family Justice Board acknowledged as much when it indicated that it both needs to tackle “immediate pressures” and to initiate the process of implementing longer-term reform.
Recently released documents reveal that backlogs have risen by 18% since the first lockdown of 2020, with the cases that are being heard taking, on average, 36 weeks, which is a full 10 weeks longer than the statutory time limit.
In the Family Justice Board’s statement the group says that additional measures should be considered to tackle the backlog, including carrying out greater a number of “paper hearings”.
However, it acknowledged the difficult reality on the ground, with increasing numbers of HMCTS workers, including judges, suffering from “guidance” fatigue.
Some of the measures proposed to deal with the ongoing problems include having salaried judges work from home so that courtrooms can be made available for fee-paid judges and greater numbers of so-called “Nightingale” courts.
Another measure would be to introduce pilots of reforms that will provide “gateways” to the family courts so that those concerned can receive earlier overviews of a family’s predicament.
Furthermore, the Family Justice Board says there needs to be a more effective and efficient way of identifying which cases are considered to be “urgent”.
As it stands, there are reports that a number of non-urgent cases are being incorrectly marked as “urgent” and this can lead to a situation in which an application may be unnecessarily rushed to court, often with a request for hearing within 24-48 hours. In such circumstances, the application may end up being inadequately prepared, creating huge frustration for all parties. It also means that court capacity is not available for truly urgent cases, and those which have been properly prepared and could have undergone a productive hearing.
In the meantime, it is perhaps more important than ever for family law solicitors and their clients to try and settle disputes and child issues without recourse to the court system.
