Vulnerable people are not receiving the communication support they require in Family Court hearings, according to The Intermediary Cooperative.
The not-for-profit organisation says that many service users feel let down by the justice system.
Lucy Swindlehurst has recently become a member of The Intermediary Cooperative following an extensive career working in education.
Ms Swindlehurst is a qualified teacher who has worked in primary education for 25 years. Most of this time was spent as a senior leader who was the Special Needs Coordinator, Safeguarding Officer and Mental Health Lead.
In her first couple of referrals as a TIC member, Lucy has been asked to carry out assessments of two mothers and their potential requirement for communication support at the final hearings at Family Courts which will decide the future arrangements for their respective children.
In both cases, when the TIC member met with the mothers there was a sense that they felt let down by the justice system. At previous hearings, they told Ms Swindlehurst that they had been unable to follow proceedings, that there were too many words and that they did not understand much of the legal jargon used.
One of the mothers revealed that at her assessment that at earlier hearings she was left feeling “rubbish” and “stupid” when she didn’t understand. She says intermediary intervention would have reduced the negative impact this experience had on the vulnerable person.
A key difference between Family Courts and Criminal Courts is that in the latter where there is a jury of lay men and women, the language used by lawyers is tailored for understanding. In a Family Court, where there is no jury, this is not the case.
It means that much of the terminology used in proceedings cannot be understood by the respondent unless someone is available to provide the necessary communication support.
Ms Swindlehurst said: “The big thing I took from these first couple of assessments is how vulnerable people are clearly not getting the communication support they need, when they need it.
“One of the mothers thought that the Judge’s decision would already have been made and that communication support at the final hearing was too late. She said she had gone through numerous previous hearings without understanding and without anyone to explain what was happening.
“Both of the mothers concerned believed they had been let down by the justice system in their worst possible moment when they face losing their children.”
Nicky Tolley, Chair of The Intermediary Cooperative, said: “Lucy’s experiences are becoming increasingly common and is a serious issue.
“We believe vulnerable clients are not being given the support they need because we are not being given the opportunity to assess and observe their functional communication skills and the many other factors that also have an impact.
“In a recent case, confusion had surrounded the use of the word ‘papers’. When the respondent was asked if ‘she had read the papers’, she initially replied that she hadn’t, wrongly assuming that the ‘papers’ referred to, were the newspapers, rather than the legal papers relevant to her hearing. This would not have been identified if the intermediary had not been present.
“Sometimes we are hearing that Judges want to see a psychological assessment of the service user before considering potential communication support, but what we assess is completely different. We are assessing someone’s functional communication and alert the court to often hidden communication breakdown or misunderstanding.
“Unlike Criminal Courts, in Family Courts, where there is no jury, legal teams do not adapt their language. It means that too often a vulnerable person can sit staring at the back of their lawyer, struggling to follow what is being said.
“We are also seeing cases where vulnerable people with a hidden disability, such as autism or ADHD, are being turned down for communication support because their disability is not as obvious as, say, someone who is deaf or has a serious head injury.
“Every person and their disability is different and that is what we try to bring out in the detailed assessments that we carry out.
“Two very different examples would be someone who has suffered a stroke and can only communicate ‘yes and ‘no’ and an autistic person who is very vocal but who doesn’t understand what is happening in court. Both very different cases, but both with a requirement for communication support from an intermediary.”
The Intermediary Cooperative prides itself on the quality of the assessments it undertakes, all of which are produced by intermediaries who come from a range of specialist professional backgrounds.
