Family Courts: A Bright Hope for the Future?

Abstract

This book would be incomplete without some discussion of the much-vaunted notion of a unified family court. Since Judge Jean Graham Hall’s paper on the subject (see Graham Hall, 1971) and the recommendations of the Finer Report, the idea of a family court has been periodically discussed (see Committee on One Parent Families, 1974). We have frequently heard social workers and lawyers comment on the inadequacies of the present legal system when it comes to dealing with family matters. Thus far, however, inertia, presumed expense and vested interests have kept a system of family courts at bay. Critics have said that the radical alternative of family courts is unnecessary, since ‘fine tuning’ the present system would effectively remove many of its flaws (Johnson, 1985); they believe that some woolly-minded enthusiasts have mistakenly seen a family court as ‘a remedy that would improve or rectify defects in the administration of family law and as a panacea for certain family crises and problems’ (Szwed, 1984).