The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

NOVEMBER 1993

At the seminar were l-r: Kieran McGrath, Social Worker; Mary O'Toole, BL;

Brian

Sheridan, Law Society Council; Mervyn Taylor, TD, Minister for Equality & Law Reform;

Michael V. O'Mahony, then Senior Vice President, Law Society; Mary Lloyd, Mediator, and

Dr. Gerry Byrne, Child Psychiatrist.

example that in a recent Dundalk

Circuit Court hearing there had been

70 cases on the family law list.

Despite the very hard work of the

presiding judge only a tiny portion of

the cases were heard. She mentioned

the absence of facilities in the court,

that people spent whole days in

freezing corridors, with more people

herded outside, waiting for their case

to come on. Mary O'Toole said that

this was simply not good enough

particularly for parties to family law

cases who were frequently suffering

distress and who were, after all, tax

paying citizens. The establishment of

proper family law courts was essential.

In recent years there had been a 300%

increase in the number of people

looking for judicial separations, and if

and when divorce became permissible,

this number would double instantly.

The Minister's promise of 52 legal aid

solicitors was a drop in the ocean - it

would only be two per county, she

said. In a criminal aid case a person

could get a solicitor in 24 hours, and

this was as it should be, since people's

constitutional rights were at issue.

However, family law litigants, whose

lives were often falling apart, also had

to face a whole range of constitutional

issues, for example, their entitlement

to the family home, their entitlement

to access to their children, succession

and pension rights, how their income

was going to be dispersed.

Mary O'Toole said that legal aid

solicitors were a credit to their

profession but the current scheme of

Civil Legal Aid and the pilot scheme

recently introduced by the Minister for

Equality & Law Reform were

hopelessly inadequate.

Interplay with social services

The afternoon session of the seminar,

chaired by the Hon. Ms. Justice

Susan

Denham

, Judge of the Supreme Court,

focused on the interplay between the

legal profession and the various sup-

port services available in the area of

marital breakdown.

Kieran McGrath,

Senior Social Worker at the Children's j

Hospital in Temple Street, told the

seminar that much of social workers'

time in marital breakdown cases was

taken up trying to keep clients out of

the adversarial court system. A marked

trend had been noted recently,

especially by probation officers, of

more and more family law cases going

forward for trial rather than being

resolved voluntarily either through the

mediation service of informally. This

had placed a great deal of pressure on

service generally and especially on the

probation officers.

Kieran McGrath said that there was a

need to introduce a system for super-

vising parental access to children in

custody and access disputes, where

there are grounds to suspect that there

is a risk of physical/sexual/emotional

abuse to the children involved. Its

absence constituted a major gap in

support services to the courts. The

ultimate losers were of course children,

for even when a parent posed a risk of

some sort, children still needed to be

able to have regular, predictable and

safe contact with that parent.

Kieran McGrath called for greater

reporting of family law cases.

"Members of the public are generally

not aware of the complexity and degree

of conflict between spouses all too often

found in custody/access disputes. This

lack of public awareness is due both to a

lack of a proper court reporting system

and the

in camera

rule restricting media

reports. There is an argument, therefore,

both for better law reporting structure

and more information for the media

about family cases that would still

protect the anonymity of those

involved," he argued.

Mediation

Mary Lloyd, a former solicitor, who

now works as a mediator, addressed

the seminar on the importance of

mediation for couples undergoing

separation. Mary Lloyd said that

throughout the life cycle there were

expected crisis points such as death,

but marriage breakdown was an

unexpected crisis. People going

through a separation experienced the

same feelings of grief and loss as they

did on a death, and the children of the

marriage were similarly affected.

Mary Lloyd explained the mediation

process. One spouse approached the

mediation service and then the other

spouse was asked to confirm that he or

she would participate. This was

usually the first agreement between

the couple following the decision to

separate. The mediation process

involved introductory sessions, then

I exploring the issues between the

couple, developing options, a process

of bargaining and negotiation,

followed by decision making. Then the

agreement was put in writing and often

after that there was a session with the

children. Part of the process was to

help the couple accept the finality of

their former relationship and the need

to restructure their future relationship,

particularly with regard to their

children. A key question that was put

to the couple was "what kind of

relationship do you think you will

have with the children? What

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overleaf)

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