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NATC EARLY INTERVENTIONS PROJECT10 February 2011

FAMILY LAW REFORM: The coming opportunity March 2011

When the FJR Interim Report comes out,there will be a choice.

Between:

EITHER

- getting family law wrong - for the next 20 or 30 years(via the MOJ and the FJR)

OR

- getting it just about right, now(via the NATC EI project)

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FAMILY LAW REFORM: The coming opportunity March 2011______________________________________________________________________

After the election, MOJ staff insisted the EI project was rerouted to the FJR for evaluation,

rather than sent up to the Minister. But EI was not evaluated, and the Interim Report due this

March seems destined to misfire.1 This provides an opportunity to put things back on track:

- the Review may do little or even nothing to improve the Court System itself

- the core problem will be unaddressed

- the add-ons proposed by the FJR are liable to make things worse

Whatever the FJR finally proposes, the way is open for EI. It is years ahead and miles better:

Possibility One: The FJR suggests that we leave the legal system as-is

If so, we can pilot EI now: as an already-perfected version of the FJRs own thinking.2

Possibility Two: The FJR suggests we think about a reform of the legal system itself

If so, we can implement the NATC proposals now, years ahead of the FJR equivalent (when known).3

A cadre of eminent professionals is still waiting to proceed. The EI reforms conflict with

nothing. They are simple, approved, ready, and cheap: a better service, at a much lower cost.

NOTES ON THE FJRS THINKING

The FJR is a Labour-inspired initiative led by Whitehall civil servants:

NOTE 1: The likely FJR recommendations (lets talk about our feelings)

The FJR may recommend the development of a nationwide 3-tier bureaucratic system to be undergone

by parents before they can go to court.

This is to build a new dysfunctional system on top of the existing dysfunctional system, yielding the

worst of both worlds: an unimproved court system - which parents cannot even reach - until they

undergo a nationalised and very protracted process - that has no teeth. We are trudging nowhere.

NOTE 2:EI - a ready-made & improved version of FJR thinking on mediation

EI embodies the same 3 tiers envisaged by the FJR (education / mediation / DV screening).

But EI delivers them in compact, integrated and purposeful form - 10 times as fast, at 1/10th

of the cost,

10 times as effectively. In addition, it puts the legal system right. Both birds are despatched with a

single stone. Everything works together: under unified control.

NOTE 3: EI - a ready-made & improved version of FJR thinking on court reform (when devised)

The EI proposals are already fully formulated and already have full judicial approval.

This is better than waiting for the FJR to formulate its proposals fully which may go off-beam and

could easily take years - as a prelude to waiting - for the FJR to get full judicial approval - which couldalso go wrong and take yet more years.

To get back to where we already are with EI could easily take decades.

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Reservations about EI (inertia may be a better term) are confined to those further down the pecking

order than those who have approved it; and/or, to those who do not need a say and can be bypassed;

and/or arise from elementary misapprehensions. These difficulties are easily finessed.

EI delivers Government objectives and the departments stated objectives in orderly and modest

fashion. We are talking about a few minor procedural changes.

NATC

8 February 2011