The Minister for Justice will today sign orders relaxing the in camera rule in family law cases. From today, the categories of people specified in the regulations can write to the Minister for Justice seeking approval to attend family law proceedings.
The in camera rule prevented anyone other than those directly involved being present and prevented the publication of any matters discussed there, including the outcome of the case.
The only place where any reports of family law proceedings were published was in the Law Reports and these were only of certain High and Supreme Court decisions. The majority of family law proceedings are in the District and Circuit Courts. The in camera rule has been much criticised for preventing any public discussion of how family law works in practice and repeal or reform of the rule has been sought by a number of groups, in particular those claiming to represent aggrieved fathers in family law proceedings. The regulations fall short of the reforms sought by these groups and sections of the media. Provision for the relaxation of the in camera rule was made in the Civil Liability and Courts Act of 2004, but most of it did not come into force pending the drawing up of regulations governing the categories of persons allowed to be present in court. These have now been signed.
Since the enactment of the Bill, barristers and solicitors, both practising and non-practising, could be present in family law proceedings in order to draw up reports. The regulations outline the other categories of people who can attend.
These include family mediators and researchers, but not journalists or interest groups. However, reports and analyses drawn up by researchers can be published, without identifying the parties. While many are likely to be published in specialist journals, there is nothing in the Act to prevent them being published in the media. Those who can now observe family law proceedings include registered family mediators, persons engaged in family law research who are nominated by the Law Reform Commission, the ESRI or one of the many universities or colleges named in the regulations, and those engaged by the Courts Service to prepare reports of the proceedings.
The Minister also signed statutory instruments allowing for court orders in family law matters to be made available to a number of bodies dealing with families or the welfare of children. These include schools, the Prison and Probation Services, An Garda Síochána, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, the Immigration Service, credit institutions and the Revenue Commissioners.