Far reaching disruption for family clients and lawyers?
The government plans national court closures which will heavily impact on family court users. The consultation proposes the closure of 91 courts across the country. The target is that court users will be able to access a court within an hour of travel. However, it’s recently emerged that these travel times fail to take account of traffic and are based on data from a website which has since been closed.
Our family lawyers mainly issue court Proceedings in the Central Family Court in London, Slough Family Court, Milton Keynes Family Court and Watford. Fortunately, only Watford faces closures so this should mean minimal disruption for clients, but disruption nonetheless.
In the wake of the most radical family reforms brought about by the Family Procedure Rules in 2010, then the move to the single Family Court in 2014, this further news is concerning for family court users.
Clients will no doubt already wonder why their divorce is being issued in Bury St Edmunds County Court. The reality is that most local Courts cannot cope with the workload and yet many of those courts are to be closed. Unsurprisingly, Bury St Edmunds is facing closure so where will our divorce petitions be issued next?
For Family Law advice please contact Lucinda Holliday on 01494 478 603 or at ljmh@blasermills.co.uk.