New combined Family Courts have come into being in England and Wales following a series of family justice system reforms.
The previous system has been described as “very dysfunctional” by Justice Minister, Simon Hughes, who welcomed the reforms, calling them “hugely important.” The reforms will apply to the 270,000 new family cases seen in the UK every year, relating to local authority intervention, divorce and domestic violence, among other issues.
Alongside the new courts, new time frames were also introduced for cases in which children are taken into care. Every effort will now be made to ensure that cases will be completed within six months within a single Family Court where possible, following research which found that children involved in care cases were being put at risk of further suffering due to lengthy delays.
Other reforms include limits on the amount of expert evidence that can be used in child-related cases and a requirement for separating couples to attend a mediation session prior to taking disputes over children or finances to court.
There will also be moves to ensure the right level of judge is appointed for a specific Family Court case.
President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC: “Today marks the largest reform of the family justice system any of us have seen or will see in our professional lifetimes.
“Taken as a whole, these reforms amount to a revolution. There has been, indeed there had to be, a fundamental change in the cultures of the family courts. This is truly a cultural revolution.”