Delays in Family Law Courts

The Children’s charity Barnardo’s has found in new research that some courts can take up to 14 months to complete care proceedings. Every case that arises is a tragedy for all involved, particularly the child who remains in limbo until a court decision is made.

The Children’s Act devised a system which is but the child’s best interests first, with cases being supposed to be less than 3 months long. However, this research shows how cases are now taking over 4 times as long as set out in the Act. Barnardo’s has said the longer a case is kept open the more likely it is to damage the child’s emotional wellbeing, as they are moved from foster placement to  foster placement and parental contact is interrupted.

At Brendan Fleming Solicitors we always maintain that children are best kept with their natural parents. As Brendan Fleming states, “Leaving a child in foster care is far from ideal it cannot compare to the love and care of a child’s natural parents. If the cases continue to take over a year the court should make moves to grant more supervision orders rather than keeping children in short term foster placements.”