By Annie Moon - MIN Trustee, 17.04.2024

After reading a recent BBC News article titled "Domestic abuse: Senior judge open to reform of family courts," we decided to take the opportunity to reflect and discuss the content from it through the following blog post.

Read the full article here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68732503

Domestic abuse: Senior judge open to reform of family courts

Dame Siobhan Keegan, a senior judge in the family court system in Northern Ireland, is absolutely right when she says that she doesn't want "a mystique about family courts sitting in private" and "making decisions the public don't understand" as quoted in this recent BBC article.

Dame Keegan’s announcement is an important step in the right direction and we applaud her for having the vision to see where the family courts system is failing those it is supposed to serve.  As we well know here at Mums In Need with the Mins (our mums who’re facing post-separation emotional abuse), legal abuse is a part of the domestic abuse picture faced by many of our mums.

The article notes, “dealing with private legal issues around custody and parental contact takes up a lot of court time.  In Northern Ireland in 2022, the family courts dealt with 4,489 of such cases out of a total of 13,823 cases that year.”  

With such a high number of cases, it is imperative that the family court system and the judges within this seek to be as fit-for-purpose as possible: this means developing an in-depth understanding of the types of cases that they are dealing with.  

They also need to understand the bigger picture of the dynamics of domestic abuse and how the legal system can be unwittingly manipulated to become another layer of abuse: legal abuse.  The BBC spoke to two women and one man, all of whom have been failed by the NI family court system in one way or another. It’s time to do some myth busting that, as it stands at present, the family courts don’t always deliver on what one would initially (perhaps naively) expect them to achieve: namely, putting the children first while balancing their needs in an informed way within the broader context of their family situation. 

With this is mind, we'd like to outline the five key areas in which we’d like to see reform in the family court system.  Although the article refers to Northern Ireland, this is equally relevant to England and Wales (although, to its credit, the family court in England and Wales has embarked on a pilot reporting scheme).

#1 The fact that family courts operate as a closed system where speaking out about what happens in the courtroom puts you in contempt of court. This veil of secrecy works in favour of an abuser as, whatever goes on in court cannot be spoken about publicly, meaning that, with our Mins, they have no recourse to officially seek professional support while navigating this challenging system. The abuser can always use the threat of: you’ll be in contempt of court if you speak out about what’s gone on. This isolates the mum even more, when she’s already vulnerable.

#2 Train the judges in what domestic abuse looks like and just how subtle legal abuse is in cases involving post-separation emotional abuse. The judge needs to be alert to the fact that domestic abuse may be happening in their courtroom and open to responding accordingly.  

The judge needs to understand the nuances.  Some examples:

Contact with one parent at any cost may NOT be in the best interests of the child; 

Assuming that the parents' split is simply acrimonious is a massive assumption on the judge’s behalf, as it may have ended up in court only because one parent wants to punish the other through the court system. 

Yet, sometimes the case ends up in the family court precisely because the child DOES need protection from the abuser (and when parent-child is not safe for the child). 

So, the family court system does have an important role to play, but there needs to be more education and awareness raising internally to understand how it can be most helpful, rather than serving to destroy family lives even more and be weaponised by an abuser.

#3 Understanding the ‘abuser mindset’ and that legal abuse is just one type of abuse in a toolbox at the perpetrator’s disposal (for example, financial abuse, emotional abuse). Knowing more about the mechanics that make legal abuse so effective.  For instance, making the mums (in our case) fight for their children, having another platform to use to interact with (and abuse) the victim, the stress/financial cost/time commitment etc related to long, drawn out family court cases, the impact on all other aspects of the mum’s life (while she’s trying to maintain a semblance of normality and to continue parenting) etc etc.  I can (Annie Moon MIN trustees with lived experience) had evidence that I was a victim of domestic abuse, and yet the judge dismissed this out of hand. 

#4 Judges should not be led by stereotypes. For example, just because one parent appears to be very eloquent and confident in the courtroom, does not mean that this person is not an abuser. The other parent may be unable to speak as they are terrorised by being in the presence of their abuser, overwhelmed as they are fighting for their child and dealing with years of poor mental health as a direct result of the abuse. This parent may appear less eloquent on this occasion.

#5 Understanding the long term implications of family court decisions - The family court makes life changing decisions which may negatively impact the victim and child in ways that the judge simply does not consider, not to mention unintentionally exacerbating the abuse and level of control that the perpetrator has over the mum.

Mums In Need acknowledges that the law, originally intended to safeguard children and their well-being, can sometimes be a broad tool. Nevertheless, we are eager to assist legislators in creating a more precise instrument to better aid the individuals they are meant to protect – children, their rights and their safety.

READ more on about legal abuse: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7185219849411817472