New book examines workings of family law courts and recommends improvements

THERE ARE a lot of things wrong with the family law system in Ireland but bias is not one of them, a new book on family law in Ireland has found.

Family Law and Practice: A study of Cases in the Circuit Court, by Irish Times legal editor Carol Coulter, is the first book to examine the workings of the Irish family law courts.

It combines information from court files and Coulter’s observations from Circuit Court proceedings in 2006 and 2007.

The book outlines trends relating to the likelihood of settlement, the issues most likely to be contentious and the outcomes both in settled and in contested cases.

It contests commonly held assumptions about the system and also makes recommendations on how it can be improved.

Launching the book last night, Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness, retired judge of the Supreme Court, said the public view of the family law courts had been coloured by rumour, hearsay and media commentary.

Much of the commentary was ill-informed and, at least in some cases, coloured by the personal prejudices of the writer.

“This book throws light on the whole family law system in a language and style the public at large could understand,” said Mrs McGuinness.

Its recommendations were “well worth following up” the judge said, and were being positively considered by the Court Service’s Family Law Reporting Project Committee.

Coulter said there had been a perception that men did not get a fair hearing in the family law courts.

However, her study had found that though there were a lot of things wrong with the system, bias was not one of them.

There are issues that should be addressed, she said, including access to free legal aid, but the issue was not one of a conspiracy or of bias, she said.