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» No 10/99 - Children and Civil Litigation - by Judith Masson and Andrea Orchard, University Of Warwick.
What do children litigate?
How much does it cost?
What awards do children receive?
This pioneering report seeks to answer these and other questions concerning children's civil litigation.
Through two studies conducted using the Legal Aid Board records of civil certificates the report looks at national data and presents the findings of an empirical study of 480 children's cases.
The macro study reveals that children, constituting 23% of the population receive 12% of civil legal aid certificates. The spread of these certificates across different case-types is outlined in detail and the duration of cases is examined.
The micro study provides a unique insight into children's cases and raises many important issues for discussion. It shows, for example, that children's damages are substantially lower than adults are and asks why this is and the implications of such differences.
The report analyses these findings in the context of current reforms to the civil justice system and discloses several points of concern in terms of children's access to justice. Issues such as the Legal Aid Board's proposed Funding Code, children's position in relation to conditional fee contracts and the future of tracing children's litigation are all addressed.
» No 9/99 - A Regional Study of Local Authority and Court Processes in Homelessness Cases - Final Report by Rachel Atkinson, Trevor Buck, David Pollard and Nicholas Smith, Faculty of Law, University of Leicester
In January 1997 new legal rights for homeless persons came into effect: the right to have a statutory review of homelessness decisions made by a local housing authority and a right of appeal to a county court from an adverse review decision. Such grievances had been advanced in the past by judicial review challenge in the High Court.
This study examines the practice and policy of these new rights within the Midland and Oxford courts Circuit: a region which contains 49 county courts and 84 local housing authorities.
The study considers and makes recommendations concerning: the breadth of informal resolution by local authorities occurring prior to the statutory review; the diversity of review structures under development; the low level of county court activity in the region; the need for more detailed guidance and training; and the need to produce relevant county court procedural rules.
» No 8/99 - Individualism and Commitment in Marriage and Cohabitation - by Jane Lewis, with Jessica Datta and Sophie Sarre, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
The central issue addressed by this research is the idea that individualism in personal relationships has substantially increased, that this is essentially selfish, and that it has undermined the commitment of men and women to each other and to their children.
Concern about the growth of selfish individualism in personal relationships has been prompted chiefly by the statistics on family change, which show a steep decline in the rate of first marriages, high divorce rates and increasing extra-marital birth rates. The rise in cohabitation, which lies behind these trends, has fuelled concern because it seems that it is even more unstable than marriage.
The research consisted of a qualitative study (supplemented by a limited quantitative study) of intact relationships of married and cohabiting couples with children under 11, and of the again, intact relationships of their parents. Are today's young parents less committed and more individualistic than their parents? And are cohabitants less committed and more individualistic than married couples?
The research found that commitment takes different forms among cohabitants and married people, but it is not clear that one form is superior to the other, or that the commitment to children is different. Compared to the older generation, all the younger respondents strove more actively both to invest in family and for individual development. The nature of the qualitative data makes it clear how impossible it is to put the clock back in terms of policy. The report outlines some of the implications for family law in terms of specific issues and more general concerns.
» No 7/99 - Safeguarding Children's Welfare in Uncontentious Divorce: a Study of S41 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 - by Mervyn Murch, Gillian Douglas, Lesley Scanlan, Alison Perry, Catherine Lisles, Kay Bader and Margaret Borkowski of Cardiff University, Cardiff Law School
A major concern of Parliament during the passage of the Family Law Act 1996 was to ensure that children's welfare is adequately safeguarded when their parents divorce.
This report outlines the working of the current law under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, which governs the position where divorcing parents are not taking any proceedings regarding the post-divorce arrangements for their children. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether the law is effective in highlighting possible issues of concern regarding these children's welfare.
An audit of family mediation services was also conducted to gain up to date information on how far children's welfare, wishes and feelings are taken into account in mediation.
The report outlines the findings of the study and the audit, and makes recommendations intended to improve court processes so that more can be done to help ensure that children are involved in parental decision-making.
» No 6/99 - Research Review on Socio-Legal Studies of Regulation: Current Work and Questions for the Future - by Robert Baldwin, London School of Economics and Political Science
British scholars have produced a number of studies of regulation and many notable contributions have offered a socio-legal perspective.
This Review maps out socio-legal research work dealing with the operation of different regulatory devices; that examines regulatory institutions and which explore central themes in regulation. These themes include regulatory development and change, rule-making, enforcement, regulating within Europe, accountability, procedures and the evaluation of regulatory regimes.
The Review concludes by looking at the scope for future productive socio-legal work on regulation.
» No 5/99 - An Empirical Analysis of Standard Fees in Magistrates' Court Criminal Cases - by Alistair Gray, University of Oxford, Paul Fenn, University of Nottingham and Neil Rickman, University of Surrey
Standard fees were introduced for legally aided criminal cases in magistrate's courts in 1993.
By changing the basis on which solicitors were paid for legal aid work, they maybe predicted to have altered the work performed on such cases. This paper uses economic theory to derive several predictions about the inputs that might have been supplied to a case, and then uses a unique set of data, from legal aid bills for 1988 to 1994, to test these predictions.
The results are consistent with solicitors responding to the change in financial incentives in line with these predictions. In turn, this raises interesting policy questions about the effects of standard fees.
» No 4/99 - Reducing delay in the criminal justice system - the views of defence lawyers - by Lee Bridges and Marc Jacobs, University of Warwick
This report examines the implications for defence services and legal aid measures being introduced under the Narey reforms and the Crime and Disorder Act to reduce delay in the criminal justice system. It is based on surveys of solicitors in different parts of the country. It concludes that, while there is support for expediting some types of case, the new measures could increase the significance of the police station as a site of defence work and reduce opportunities for review of charges during the processing of cases through the court.
» No 3/99 - The Guardian ad litem: complex cases and the use of experts following the Children Act 1989 - by Julia Brophy and Phil Bates, Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University of London
Guardians' views and approach to the use of experts in care proceedings highlighted tensions in operating policies which both support parents and protect highly vulnerable children. Despite the fact that debates in this field have been dominated by concerns over costs and delay, many guardians were striking in their attention to rights of parents as equal litigants, their criticisms of certain 'experts', their admonishment of the work of many non specialist solicitors and their caution about using joint letters of instructions.
Although care proceedings under the Children Act were viewed as a substantial improvement over previous proceedings, the study raises questions about the appropriate work of the guardian. He/she now has a multi dimensional role, and they are used as 'safety net' to alleviate shortcomings in the skills/resources of other professionals and services. Their views and approaches to the use of experts also demonstrate that the current legal system has not resolved how it will develop a more 'inquisitorial model' while retaining avenues whereby expert knowledge can be rigorously tested.
» No 2/99 (Volumes 1 and 2) - High Divorce Rates: the State of the Evidence on Reasons and Remedies - One plus One Marriage and Partnership Research
This volume and volume 2 contain seven reviews of evidence, from the United Kingdom and overseas, on the causes of marital breakdown and the effectiveness of policies and services intended to reduce its incidence. The project was undertaken by One plus One Marriage and Partnership Research as an aid to policy development.
In the first paper of the volume 1 Lynda Clarke and Ann Berrington consider the socio-demographic predictors of divorce. The research evidence shows that early marriage, premarital childbearing, and previous partnership breakdown are among the most important of these predictors.
In the second paper Fiona McAllister considers the effect of change in people's material circumstances on the incidence of marital breakdown. The economic incentives to marry or to stay married become less compelling to the extent that increases in women's earning power and unemployment among men undermine the economic rationale of the traditional man-as-breadwinner model of marriage.
In the third paper Jenny Reynolds and Penny Mansfield review evidence on the effects of changing attitudes to marriage on its stability. While most people value stable marriage, the progress of individualism, especially among women, has led to an increased emphasis on the quality of the relationship between partners.
In the first paper of volume 2, John Simons considers the four theories that seam to have achieved dominance in explaining relationship distress. In the second and third papers, he also reviews evidence on the effectiveness of marriage preparation courses and relationship therapy. The evidence does not support an optimistic view of the effectiveness of either, but suggests that large numbers of people find relationship therapy helpful, for reasons that include coming to terms with the loss of a relationship or with its intractable flaws.
In the final paper, Penny Mansfield, Jenny Reynolds and Lisa Arai review evidence on the effects of legislative and fiscal policy on marital stability. The effects appear to be small. The authors suggest that policy should focus on promoting healthy relationships rather than creating incentives to marry or disincentives to divorce.
» No 1/99 - Marriage, Cohabitation and the Law: Individualism and Obligation - by Jane Lewis, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
It is increasingly being recognised that behind the dramatic changes in family structure arising from high levels of divorce, cohabitation and lone parenthood, lie profound changes in ideas about marriage and in marital behaviour. The main issue in both the popular and academic literature is whether these changes are symptomatic of increased individualism and a decrease in commitment.
This report reviews first, the current debate on individualism, including the fear that changes in family law have contributed to 'selfish' behaviour; second, what the social science literature tells us about what is actually going on inside marriages; and third, what can be expected of family law.
It concludes that the empirical evidence on intimate relationships does not reveal any clear trend towards individualism, which means that calls for a more contractual approach to such relationships will likely be at odds with the social reality. It suggests that the central problem for relationships in trouble stems from the unequal division of paid and unpaid caring work between men and women, and that there are limits as to how far family law can do the work of addressing this issue.