Today the Ministry of Justice released the quarterly figures for family law statistics which has shown an increase in closed private law cases involving children, quicker care proceedings and a decrease in domestic violence remedy applications, with an increase in orders made.
Domestic violence remedy order applications decreased by one per cent compared to the same quarter last year, while the number of orders increased by eight per cent over the same period covering April to June.
Care and supervision cases reaching disposal were down by three weeks and 32 per cent of cases were disposed of within 26 weeks, up three percentage points.
There has been an increase in the number of both adoption applications and orders. In April to June 2024 there were 1,089 adoption applications, up six per cent on the equivalent quarter in 2023. Similarly, the number of adoption orders issued increased by seven per cent to 1,103.
There was also an increase in deprivation of liberty applications and decrease in orders made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.There were 1,831 applications under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 relating to deprivation of liberty in April to June 2024, up 28 per cent on the equivalent quarter in 2023. Orders decreased by 41 per cent in the latest quarter compared to the same period last year.
There was a decrease in timeliness for probate grants issued. Probate grants took approximately 8 weeks (mean average) to be issued after the application was submitted during April to June 2024, down over 5 weeks on the equivalent quarter in 2023.
William Rollin, Partner, Boodle Hatfield said of the new stats:
“It’s welcome news that the Family Court report a 17% increase in the number of both finance and private law children cases closed between April and June this year as compared with 2023. Closing more cases faster reflects more dynamic case management, and this will hopefully result in greater satisfaction for families navigating the inevitably uncomfortable court process.”
Commenting on the Quarterly Family Court statistics released by the MOJ today, Lauren Evans, partner in the Family & Divorce team at Kingsley Napley LLP, says:
“The most recent MoJ family court statistics for the period April-June 2024 show an increase in “disposal events” for both financial cases (up 20%) and private children cases (up 17%) compared to the same period last year when a similar number of applications were made. More cases have therefore been settling or reaching final determination by a judge.
“What we cannot say is whether this shows increased court efficiency or is due to other factors – for example, improved confidence in the economy encouraging more settlements or it may even, by contrast, be a sign that exasperation at prolonged financial uncertainty and families running out of funds has forced them to settle. At the very least though the families involved will finally have an outcome enabling them to move on with some clarity about their financial positions or arrangements for their children.
“The statistics also show a significant decrease for the quarter in the number of separating couples starting a financial court process (down 12% in Q2 compared to Q1 2024). This may be a direct result of the new rules, introduced in April 2024, which widened the definition of non-court dispute resolution (NCDR) and encouraged, in the strongest terms, people to resolve their disputes away from the court, e.g. in the privacy of mediation, arbitration or private FDR hearings. These NCDR options can also be quicker and more empowering for separating families than having a court judgment imposed on them. Today’s figures are hopefully, therefore, a sign of a positive trend to come for both the Family Court and divorcing couples.”
The rollout of reform in family courts introduced a new data management system, Core Case Data (CCD), to collect family data. As each service area undergoes reform, existing cases stay on the legacy system FamilyMan (FM) until they are disposed or closed, while new cases are recorded on CCD with some key details copied back to FM.
Recently, family public law (FPL) completed this reform process and work has been completed to amalgamate both FM and CCD.
The MoJ say that they have revised the timeliness metrics for care and supervision, as well as for public law overall. Previously, the time was calculated for every child and for every order that child was subject to. They have have now moved to a more straightforward case-level measure that looks at the average number of weeks from application to disposal for all cases closed in the period referred to.
This definition aligns with that used in the management information published by HMCTS and better matches the experience of the court user.
Statisticians said of the new data: “During April to June a reduced number of cases started for public law and domestic violence compared to the equivalent period last year, whilst the number of cases disposed for financial remedy during this period increased.”
