Family law marked as ‘stable’ area of litigation

A recent LexisNexis report has shown that the legal industry saw a strong rebound in Q2 2020, following the pandemic. However, the report notes that full recovery is still some way off.

The report found that family had been and will continue to be an insulated area of litigation. The successful implementation of technology has helped cases to progress through the courts during lockdown.

As a result, throughput has quickly returned to close to pre Covid-19 levels, which the report believe will help to reduce the backlog in cases that has built up over the last 12 months.

Growth in family litigation has been slow, but in Q4 grew by 9% demonstrating the sector is bouncing  back from the pandemic’s effects.

Rachel Chan, Family Barrister at 42 Bedford Row, commented on the results of the report. She said:

“In my view, whilst the pandemic had a significant impact on family proceedings in early 2020, the rapid response of the Family Court, led by the President of the Family Division and supported by regular guidance and caselaw, enabled litigation to remain stable during Q4.  By Q4, family practitioners, the judiciary, professionals working within family work and Court staff had all embedded good remote working practice.  In particular, the flexibility of Courts in their use of technology whilst the Cloud Video Platform was still in early stages of development, enabled hearings to still proceed which meant the Courts were dealing with less of a backlog than they otherwise might have been.  By way of example, some High Court Judges allowed the use of Zoom, other Courts used BT MeetMe, Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business which has not been possible in other areas, such as crime.

“In my experience, all those who work within the Family Justice System have worked tremendously hard to ensure that it is ‘business as usual’ despite the extremely difficult circumstances we were all working under.  Counsel and solicitors bent over backwards to enable clients to participate effectively in proceedings, often providing them with the technology to enable them to do so.”

Mentioning the delays, Rachel added:

“There are delays and backlogs in care work; they are not as significant as those in private children work or matrimonial finance. We are all working incredibly hard, almost like a team, for the Family Justice System.

”Courts are working at maximum capacity; Court lists are jam-packed, with Judges often sitting at 9.30am or at times, 9am.  Practitioners who are dealing with matters remotely, are often able to deal with more than one case a day in different Courts which due to distance, would not have possible pre-Covid times which has increased capacity for work.

“Certainly, both anecdotally and in my experience, there are backlogs in private children work and matrimonial finance.  These areas tend to involve more unrepresented parties due to the lack of legal aid available.  Private children law cases seem to have experienced delay as a result of priority of Court time being given to urgent care cases.  Greater use is being made of mediation, but I am unclear as to how successful this has been in diverting cases away from Court as the impact is not seen by Counsel.  Matrimonial finance matters have also been affected and experienced delays.  However, there has been an increase in the use of private FDR hearings and practitioners have been fairly innovative in ways to progress matters.  Sadly, Covid-19 has had an impact on many lay parties’ incomes and finances which have meant that some cases have not been able to settle as they would have done previously.”

Sharing her tips for those entering the profession, Rachel said:

“This work is extremely stressful at the best of times and has intensified over the past year.  My top tip, therefore, to those in the Family Law profession as they continue to work their way out of the pandemic, is to be kind to yourself.”