Following a review of the operation of the family courts by Mr Justice Ryder, the Government is poised to introduce measures designed to speed up the operation of the courts by a variety of means.
Among the proposals are:
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Making the courts less reliant on expert witness evidence supplied by – which the review claimed is both misused and overused;
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Making that the children involved in family disputes are able to put their views to the court;
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Better training for judges to help them to take a more inquisitorial role and to make their decisions more quickly; and
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Improvements in the way the process of the court and the court decisions are explained to the children involved.
The review comes shortly after a review of family court procedures, which recommended that cases involving children should be dealt with in no more than six months – half the current average,