flApp v.2 - Family Law Support for 2014

In January 2014 we launch our new Family Law App... flApp v.2

2006 saw our first venture into family law information for separating parents, and The Custody Minefield book reached no.2 on Amazon's Divorce Chart. A reviewer in the Magistrates Magazine said it would 'save parents a fortune in legal fees'. The Divisional Chair of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy described it as a 'gem of information'.

The law isn't static, and print media soon becomes out-of-date. With legal aid being abolished and charity funding being cut, litigants the need for detailed support information has become even greater. I often am asked 'can you recommend a good family law book?' Not if it was written more than a year ago. The Low Commission (tasked with investigating support tools to plug the hole left by legal aid cuts) calls for action by 'the next Government'. Parents and their children need help now! Not after the next election.

In 2012, we launched our first web based application. This grew into a behemoth of information, as more and more content was added covering an ever wider array of situations and circumstances. We feared this was becoming overwhelming for the user.

When building this new version, we faced three dilemmas.

1. We wanted more content, not less. Something easily accessible, but not dumbed down. The volume of content needed thoughtful structuring,  in a more user friendly format.

2. We felt the volume of information in our first app was too overwhelming for some litigants, and especially when they are hindered by stress... but that depth of information is necessary to ensure the litigant can be properly armed, to achieve an 'equality in arms' (or as close as we could get it).

3. We were aware that a number of charities have support staff who use our guides, as do some McKenzie Friends. Specific guides would need to be quickly accessed while an adviser is on the phone, or with a parent or grandparent, face-to-face. Different users would need to access information in different ways.

In short, our goal was to provide more information, in a more accessible format, which was not overwhelming for the user, and would be of benefit to both the novice litigant and experienced adviser on family law.

This has been no easy feat. The new app answers many hundreds of questions and we estimate has 1,000,000 words of content (we stopped counting after 850,000).

Accessibility - Design

Accessibility is critical for any application. The format will need to work across all popular phones, tablet, e-reader, and desktop platforms. The design needs to cater for touch screen or keyboard usage. It does!

Accessibility - Structure

Rather than a long list of guides, we've opted for content specific, menu driven access, which breaks information into 'digestible' chunks, and where the user is lead from guide to guide.

The litigant-in-person (new to family law) chooses the first button 'Resolving Disputes', whereupon they're taken to a stage by stage, guide to the legal process.

Step 1: Pre-Litigation (guides on mediation, handling stress, helping children cope etc).

Step 2: Applying to Court (everything from orders explained, to the application process, forms etc)

Step 3: The first hearing (the FHDRA explained, position statements, the role of CAFCASS, confidentiality, courts and judges, etc)

Step 4: Directions and interim hearings (bundles, statements, collating evidence, investigations etc)

Step 5: Contested/Final hearings (preparation, bundles, scott schedules, skeleton arguments, submissions etc).

Simple guides on most other sites simply fail to cover more complex situations, and don't provide information which the litigant needs. What does a 'statement' look like? How should it be structured? What goes into a skeleton argument? What on earth is a Scott Schedule or the Witness Template? Who can I ask for advice (a question some court clerks appear confused on, when telling litigants they can't speak to lay advisers without the court's consent... you can!)?

So we go into detail... 

Taking Leave to Remove as an example (where one parent seeks to take a child to live abroad and the other parent opposes the move), our guides provide information as to what the court considers important, steps you may take, domestic as well as international legislation, and case law.

If your children are missing, you come home and the house is empty, if your children are at risk of removal abroad, suffering abuse or neglect, are being alienated from you or it's disputed whether you're their parent... you'll find practical information to assist you, referenced to the latest court judgments, and all commonly asked questions are answered.

Accessibility - Choices

If you know what you want, and would sooner not search through menus, we're introducing Oscar. Using page specific meta-tags, Oscar, our search agent, hunts for specific content.

Oscar searches through guides, menus and case law. Regarding case law searches, you can search using the area of law (e.g. contact disputes, parental alienation, leave to remove, internal relocation, shared residence etc...). If you remember the year and the judge who heard the case, Oscar can bring up cases heard by a specific judge or in a given year. If you know the neutral citation number, that's fine too (but how many of us do!). In short, Oscar is your dedicated family law librarian and can be accessed as a 'pop up' on any page with the press of a button.

For the new litigant, we've added a legal dictionary, which again can be accessed from any page, and being a 'pop up' screen, you don't have to leave the page you're on to decipher legal language (and then lose your place)!

For telephone support staff who need instant access to information, we've added a full content list, which again can be pulled up as a popup, and content accessed in this way opens up as a new window (allowing multiple windows to be open at once). 

Version 2, launching in January 2014, will have case law in both html (on screen) and a downloadable alternative (in a pdf format) should litigants want to provide the court with a skeleton argument supported by a reading list and hard copy case law. Where cited in guides as an indication of matters the court considers in specific circumstances, hyperlinks take the user straight to the judgment.

Version 3 will launch in April 2014, in anticipation of changes to the family courts. The modular design structure allows us to update content... fast ... and we'll have some new surprises for you!

2013 - Is this the year of the fatherless child?

A while ago, Iain Duncan Smith was quoted in the Telegraph on the subject of fatherlessness in society, and how the legal system had failed a third of children who had lost contact over the last 20 years. It's wrong to lay the blame solely at the doors of the courts. Successive Governments haven't treated the issue seriously or with sufficient thought.

Over 2,000 years ago there was a judgment given, where Solomon faced a bitter custody dispute. Not much has changed in the years since. Human nature doesn't change. People behave badly. People get caught up in disputes, and anger, revenge, spite and a long list of other unpleasant human emotions come to the surface. As one sage judge said on the issue of fact findings and allegations (we do love Mostyn's judgments) 'if parents were behaving well, they'd probably still be together'.

The Government is naive if it believes that mediation alone is a panacea to fatherlessness or will soak up the mess left by legal aid cuts. Lay advisers and members of the legal profession see the full ambit of unpleasantness in the courts. I've seen a number of extremely unpleasant cases recently, where before matters had gone to court, one parent was fabricating evidence to stitch up the other, then calling the police or social services. The Jeremy Kyle world sadly exists, and isn't limited to the working classes.

I agree that adversarial family law fans the flames of parental hostility, but it's naive to think that it's the cause of parental hostility, or that the carrot without the stick is sufficient to resolve many parental disputes. Statistics suggest that 10% of separating parents go to court, while a further 30% fail to agree any arrangements (lacking the court's involvement). Could it be that fatherlessness may be reduced by more parents accessing the courts? Could it be that an imperfect system is better than no system at all?

Where is the support for parents who cannot afford a solicitor, whose numbers are to be swelled by tens of thousands next year once legal aid goes? What access to justice for them?

45,000 are to lose legal aid. Courts are closing. Court delay more likely due to inexperienced litigants in person eating up court time. The Government's plans are likely to save some money (if only from the reduced legal aid bill). Has any consideration been given to replacing that support, and giving parents the depth of knowledge they need to make informed decisions should mediation fail? What we saw yesterday was a useful links page to third sector organisations, but nothing in practical terms to support parents whose ex-partner says 'no'. Nothing to support those falsely accused whose world is at risk and who need legal advice. Nothing to support those who come home and find the house empty and their children gone... and the list of more complex but fairly routine scenarios goes on.

...and consider what a falsely accused parent faces, which will become worse next year. The accuser receives Government funded legal representation. The accused not. No equality of arms, and I fail to see how their right to a fair hearing is protected. Consider the risks... loss of children, loss of home, and findings made that destroys their character... all judged on a subjective balance of probability in a court under pressure, and where the accused lacks the legal guidance afforded to their alleged victim. No checks and balances. Will the prospect of free legal aid encourage false allegations?

On a good note... consider the benefit to Government statistics... we'll see headlines that Government policy has led to more successful findings against perpetrators of domestic violence... 

The cost to society could be many times greater than the short term financial savings that the Government hopes for. We know that fatherlessness is linked to higher incidences of crime, teenage pregnancy, poor mental health, addiction, lower performance at school and other societal ills. Such are the findings of Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice. Will mediation fix Broken Britain? Will the Government's new app, which is little more than a useful links page, give parents the tools they need to safeguard their children's relationships? No. Not for many. Not for thousands.

Can those third sector organisations deliver the support that's needed? Will they have the resources to meet demand? Could you fit 1000 parents in your local pub for a monthly support meeting?  Are there sufficient numbers and sufficiently knowledgeable volunteer advisers to offer support to 45,000 parents next year?

We hope the Government has something else up their sleeve, but we found nothing on that app, and have seen nothing in their publications to suggest they have meaningful support for the parents who find mediation doesn't work, and where a solicitor is unaffordable.

Is the Government's policy to hope that thousands of years of human nature can be reversed overnight? Surely the biggest social gamble in my life time. I may be being harsh, but they may be being criminally negligent.

Mediation can work, but there also needs to be access to justice where it fails. Access to justice is about to become harder. I wonder how many parents won't approach the courts because they simply don't know how to, lack the necessary information and feel overwhelmed.

On a good note... consider the benefit to Government statistics... we'll see headlines that fewer parents are resorting to the courts...

What we may see next year are the ranks of fatherless children swelled by those whose parents no longer qualify for legal aid, and a hopeless situation for those whose parents face false allegations. Broken Britain perpetuated, or made worse by this Government due to a mix of poor advice, wishful thinking and a lack of planning and resources.