In my court experience I learnt that the Independent Child Lawyer is appointed by Legal Aid. This sounds fair enough, but then learnt the Independent Child Lawyer is appointed on the basis of - how much the lawyer charges. Therefore Legal Aid appoints the lowest bidder!! What a system!

Fortunately there are Lawyers and Barristers out there who do care about the children and do their utmost but are confined and restricted. I was fortunate in having high quality representation for my child by the Independent Child Lawyer and my own Solicitor. Also court expert was not a PAS supporter. This however made no difference in the scheme of things.

What is curious is the Judges discretion in the case Sunita talks about in her article. The majority of experts were presenting serious concerns about the children, yet the Judge selected the evidence from the expert who supported PAS? Why?

JfK:"The majority of experts were presenting serious concerns about the children, yet the Judge selected the evidence from the expert who supported PAS? Why?"

I can only assume the expert who demurred from the "majority" view was more credible to the judge. Courts are not democratic places in the sense that all experts are equal. A dozen junk opinions are still junk and one fact is worth more than a dozen suppositions. Can you think of any reasons for the judge to have considered the one opinion more credible than the others, consensual as they may have been? Try to avoid the one that goes "the judge determined to allow the child to be abused", since it's probably not the right one. As I don't know your case, I can't offer any more than that, I'm sorry.

The trade off for accepting low wages (but not compared to the average wage) now for doing child rep work is that it provides vastly increased networking opportunities, experience on the resume and in the long run a shot at getting oneself to the other side of the bench.

Justice for Kids

My comment disappearded so this might be a duplicate. Thank you for your encouraging comments. Could you tell me more about the National Framework please? I'd like to contribute etc.

The slight indirect contact I was granted by the Court three weeks ago is not working. The permitted birthday present is still at a PO awaiting the mother's signature. It arrived on time, by registered post. I managed to speak to the child on his mother's mobile phone on the third attempt for his birthday and I asked her to collect his package. It seems that like perjured Affidavits etc this sort of contempt for the legal process is tolerated. What can we do about it?

During the phone call there was no sign of the angry and hostile (to me) child described by the Family Consultant/Reporter. I suppose this indicates that it is worth accepting (as an interim measure at least) even the slightest contact.

Child Advocate
Your description of the Family Court process is very apt. Your item also helps to explain why my barrister (selected by my formerly trusted solicitor) backed down at the last minute, although cross examination of the Family Consultant/reporter on that day would not have been possible because of the requirement to give 14 days notice. They both seem to be in the wrong job!

For the purpose of keeping this discussion current in the forum, I have added this post.

I continue to encourage parents to write to their local MP about the corrupt adversarial system and urging a change to an investigative system. Ideally, I would like to see all barristers, judges, lawyers and report writers involved in the current system banished to the salt mines of Siberia, but I doubt Mr Rudd will entertain such a notion.