Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division (the top Family Judge) has announced plans to open up family court cases in general to the public and press for the first time. Until now almost all family cases are heard in secret.

He is consulting widely on the possibility of opening up hearings so that members of the public or the press may attend contested divorce hearings, which are relatively rare, but also cases involving child arrangement orders – to define with which parent a child will live and how much time they may spend wit the absent parent.

He believes the public have a genuine right to know the type of issues that the Family Court judges decide and the principles on which they base their decisions.

For free confidential advice about divorce or relationship issues please contact David on 07793 055104 or david@jwlaw.co.uk or Sarah on 0788 7721458 or sarah@jwlaw.co.uk

Ann Widdecombe, the former Tory Party Cabinet Minister writing in the Express, suggests that current divorce laws (dating back to 1973 with only minor amendments) should perhaps be amended.

A study has suggested that 54% of divorced people regret the breakdown of their marriage and the granting of a decree absolute of divorce. 40% of couples even give the failing relationship another chance after the divorce. She suggest that these figures highlight the need to make divorce harder to achieve than at present under the “quickie divorce” undefended paper procedure and to introduce more attempts to get the parties reconciled and communicating better before they go too far down the divorce track.

A new book Family Breakdown recently written by Penelope Leach advises parents on how best to accommodate their children’s interests during a divorce.

Divorce numbers are increasing. Families are increasingly failing to properly deal with the issues that affect children.

More and more parents are being advised or directed by the Courts to attend separated parents information programmes run by Relate and similar organisations to improve their understanding of the issues that directly affect their children and communication issues between themselves.

Jordan Williams Law Limited is a member of Relate and fully advocates their principals and guidelines.