Typical. I get an invite to join the Guardian Legal Network and then I’m too too busy to post anything for like E-VAR! *teenaged eye roll*
So there are a few things I’ve had my eye on but which I haven’t had time to get a post together about…And those things are these:
- The Family Justice Council have commissioned some research on Domestic Violence cases. They are asking for practitioners to respond to a survey.
- The Civil Justice Council has just published a report on Litigants in Person(they call them Self Litigants but to me this sound like it is describing some category of crazy litigants who are suing themselves! Maybe Billy Connelly could make a film about it?). That report briefly references my book
as “A valuable handbook for self-represented litigants in family courts”. Ahhh-thankyooo *Elvis voice*. Shamefully I haven’t had time to read it in full, but I know a man who has. - And Dave at Nearly Legal has written a really rather erudite piece about Jones v Kernott – far more detailed than my own (although in fairness mine wasn’t aimed at an audience of lawyers so I deliberately adopted a broad brush). It is here: Jones v Kernott – Ending the big debate?
- And of course there’s still that Family Justice Review report which I still haven’t fully got to grips with (I particularly like the not-at-all-over-optimistic press release headline “Family Justice Review proposals to end delays in family courts”. As if the mere utterance of the proposals will instantly achieve the end of all delay (does this mean the instantaneous resolution of cases at the moment of issue? No need for lawyers at all then!))
I am about to write a proper post about my FOI request about litigants in person, but I have a sense that I might fall asleep, nose in a spreadsheet, before I complete that. So you can have this to be going on with.
Must try harder this week….
Isn’t that always the way? These topics sound well worth a read though. I’m looking forward to reading them when you find the time. Congratulations on the invitation to the Guardian Legal Network.
Katie Leaver, LondonlovesJobs
Any parent suffering domestic violence at the hands of their spouse/partner who reports the offender to the police(who then notify social services) risks losing the children for failing to protect them from witnessing the violence even if the domestic upsets amount to no more than excessive shouting.
If the suffering parent finds a new and gentle partner at a later date and becomes a parent of a new baby ,almost certainly that child will follow the others as fodder for the adoption industry and a new and completely innocent parent and baby will once more suffer at the hands of the ever encroaching State.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think you are discouraging victims of domestic violence from reporting crimes against them, and from seeking help and protection. Is that right Ian? Are you advising them to stay in an abusive environment with their children? I think it very unlikely that excessive shouting alone would result in the removal of a child, except in the most extreme circumstances. I assume that you accept that repeated excessive shouting can cause emotional harm to a child, your comment seems to downplay its significance? A parent who seeks appropriate support and protection to leave an abusive partner cannot really be criticised for failing to protect, whereas one who follows the advice you seem to be given would be bang to rights if such an argument were raised. S/he could also be criticised for failing to work with professionals.
For the record, if that is what you are advising it is bad and dangerous advice. Any victim of domestic abuse, whether it is shouting or physical violence should seek support and help from friends, family or the police or other support organisations. Some people don’t have family and friends and they have to go to the authorities for help.
I have experience in a number of cases of victims of repeat d.v. finding new and more suitable partners, and that stable healthy relationship being the key to them keeping a new baby or getting back the children previously lost to care.
Unfortunately I Do advise parents who are victims of domestic abuse NOT to go to the police as they in turn report matters to social workers who then take the children via EPOs and then ICOs so that the unfortunate parents are not only battered but bereft. Through my site http://www.forced-adoption.com I now receive at least three new calls PER DAY from parents whose children have been taken!Over 1000 per year plus at least the same number of follow up calls ! I see the same patterns occuring with monotonous regularity.
Shouting does cause child removal, and frequently from parents who “seek appropriate support and protection”(as you put it familoo) but I never advise such parents to stay ,in fact I help them leave ! Yes emotional abuse does (although undefined)exist but it can never justify breaking up a family and forced adoption of the children.Only physical violence or other serious criminal behaviour can justify smashing up a family and then only if it is either very damaging or very repetitive (not just a smack on the butt or a small bruise !) This was certainly the case before the horrific creation of social workers and the like,when previously child cruelty was a police matter and parents were only punished if they committed a crime and never for “failing to engage with professionals and similar crackpots” Even criminal parents had the protection of criminal justice procedures,were never gagged and if parents were faced with a possible long separation from their children they had the right to a hearing by jury.
Even the children taken into State care fared better in those days as they were then allowed phone calls,and uncensored conversation when visted by relatives;Nowadays all such essential rights have been forfeited and children in care are treated in those respects worse than murderers in prison who still enjoy those privileges!
France,Spain,and Italy especially respect the integrity of the family and I suggest the UK should do the same !
So to summarise: victims of DV shouldn’t go to the police. Emotional abuse is ok however severe. And an assault on a child severe enough to cause a bruise is also ok. And parents should only be separated from their children after a trial by jury leading to a sentence of imprisonment.
That is an extremely concerning position and more so because vulnerable people may rely on that advice and place themselves or their children at unacceptable risk of harm, physical or otherwise.
I’m going to permit your comment so that people visiting this site can be clear what you stand for, but I’m not going to permit future comments along this line, because I profoundly disagree with you and do not want to give the impression that I endorse those views. You are entitled to disagree with me, but not to use this site as a platform.