GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

at the gym every day, he’s getting really big and strong”, which was a threat.

You can only imagine the impact of this sort of thing.

But back to the courts. The thresholds for domestic violence exceptions which

prevent the perpetrator from cross-examining his victim have never really

worked very well and appeals are often rejected. Proving domestic abuse to

gain access to protections afforded by the courts is hugely contentious and

without legal representation really is probably just not going to happen.

Cafcass who employ family court workers (and we have got about 300

members who are family court workers in our union) have developed a toolkit

to help workers guide people through this system, but it will be really hugely

helpful if we had some research done highlighting the issues and refining best

practice and there are charities such as Domestic Abuse Services who were

formerly Women’s Aid and other such charities who are really interested in

commissioning this work with people who would help support it.

There is an additional pressure on the judiciary in this model and it has been

raised in Parliament and shared with the Magistrates Association and some in

the Bar. For example, if justice is to feel fair and be fair it is essential that

vulnerable people are able to access that really. Judges must be able to retain

the confidence of both parties and it is really, really difficult with the system as it

is. Then they have got to make a decision which is objective and one party or

the other is left feeling really bad, because the judges are guiding them through

this, because they have got no legal training. So it is really, really difficult. Of

course, we are talking about survivors of domestic abuse, but many are not so

lucky. Today there is still an average of two victims a week that die at the

hands of a partner or an ex-partner. That is a horrendous stat, isn’t it?

Something needs to be done to change it.

Are you ready for the next quote? “Those of them that do die do seldom or

never recover from it”. Finally, from a political viewpoint, the GFTU support for

independent research would help remove any political pressure on family court

staff who are restricted in what they can say as civil servants, but they would

be more protected if we had some independent critical research done. To

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