Family law

Resolution’s summer of campaigning

From a host of UKSC judgments highlighting the need for reform to a consultation looking at removing fault from divorce, 2018 has been a momentous year for family law.

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About the author: Margaret Heathcote is national chair of Resolution.

Resolution campaigns for improvements to the justice system on behalf of our membership of family justice professionals, and our call to end the blame game stretches back decades (see also Margaret Heathcote, ‘Campaigning for ‘divorce without blame’, (2018) Summer CILExJ page 40). The landmark consultation was announced following Resolution’s campaigning, and in the wake of the Owens case (in which Resolution was the only intervener) and our continued calls for government urgently to address divorce law reform (Owens v Owens and Resolution (intervener by written submissions only) [2018] UKSC 41, 17 May 2018).¹

On the website hosting the consultation, the government acknowledges that the current divorce system encourages conflict and confirms that the Ministry of Justice is ‘seeking views on how best to change the law to reduce family conflict and strengthen family responsibility’.² The government states its objectives for law reform as two-fold:

ensuring the decision to divorce is considered, and there is an opportunity to change course; and
not putting divorcing couples through unnecessary legal requirements which can lead to conflict and negative outcomes for children.

This consultation represents the culmination of decades of advocating for reform, and is an opportunity to influence future policy which cannot be missed. I strongly encourage all those practising family law, or indeed anyone who feels compelled to share their views on divorce, to take part. Resolution will be responding in the coming weeks and encouraging our wider membership to respond as well.

Resolution will continue to push for this much-needed change, and to work with government as it charts a course for the future. As momentum builds around no fault divorce, Resolution is working across multiple policy areas to improve the family justice system for all users.

Basic legal rights for cohabiting couples

Another of Resolution’s key campaign areas is focused on securing at least basic legal rights for cohabiting couples on separation.³ Last November, we dedicated a week to raising awareness of the issues these couples can face, as well as speaking with MPs to explain the true extent of the problems that constituents can experience.

On 18 August, the most popular day for weddings in the UK this year, Resolution ran another awareness-raising campaign around the ‘commonlaw marriage’ myth. CILEx supported the campaign by signing our letter to the Guardian, which called for basic legal rights for cohabiting couples. This call for change was supported by a further 13 legal organisations and family charities. Impact from this campaign, alongside well-publicised Supreme Court judgments on civil partnerships and widowed parent’s allowance, saw three more signatories on Early Day Motion (EDM) 582, bringing the total number supporting it to 26 cross-party MPs (see R (Steinfeld and Keidan) v Secretary of State for International Development (in substitution for the Home Secretary and the Education Secretary) [2018] UKSC 32, 27 June 2018, and In the matter of an application by Siobhan McLaughlin for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland [2018] UKSC 48, 30 August 2018 respectively). Sponsored by Caroline Lucas, EDM 582 calls on the government to act upon Resolution's proposal that cohabitants meeting

eligibility criteria indicating a committed relationship have a legal right to apply to the courts for certain financial orders if they separate.

As the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics demonstrate, unmarried cohabitation where the couple have children is the fastest growing type of family in the UK. Resolution will continue to call for legal rights for these families upon separation.

We have a number of resources on our website to support campaigning, including a template letter to ask your MP to support EDM 582, as well as graphics, factsheets, videos and other resources to raise awareness.

In the wake of the announcement made at the Conservative party conference, in early October, that civil partnerships are to be made available to couples of the opposite sex, we cannot afford to slow the pace of campaigning for rights for cohabiting couples who have not entered into any binding form of legal relationship in the event of separation.

Campaign on the horizon: Resolution’s 'Good Divorce' week

Each year, Resolution devotes a week to campaigning on an issue of key importance to the professionals we represent. This year, our awareness week runs from 26 to 30 November and focuses on how separating parents can limit the impact of conflict on their children from relationship breakdown.

As family justice professionals, all Resolution members sign up to our Code of Practice committing them to putting the best interests of any children first as they work to resolve issues in a constructive way. Supporting parents to deal with their emotions, support their children and manage co-parenting during and after separation is a vital part of the work we do.

We know that conflict from separation can have a disproportionate impact on children. We also know from a ComRes poll we ran in October 2015 that most young people (82%) who have experienced divorce would prefer parents to part if they are unhappy rather than 'stay together'.¹

The government’s recent announcements around potential divorce law reform would go a long way to shift the focus from blame to one of support for individuals to make arrangements for their own and their children’s futures. As highlighted in the Nufield Foundation’s ‘Finding fault’ report by Professor Liz Trinder: ‘producing evidence of fault can create or exacerbate unnecessary conflict with damaging consequences for children’ (page 9).¹¹

With a view to minimising the impact of conflict on young people, Resolution will be responding fully to the government consultation and encouraging our members to share their views as well. We will also be sharing a number of resources to raise awareness of steps that individuals, and the professionals who support them, can take to prioritise the needs of children during and after separation and divorce. Further information will be posted on Resolution’s Twitter account closer to the week itself.¹²

Join Resolution: Chartered Legal Executives are welcome!

Chartered Legal Executives are eligible and welcome to join Resolution, especially if you are interested in getting more involved with our campaigning. We would like to see Resolution membership become a natural part of career development for CILEx members. We look forward to working and campaigning further with CILEx to improve the family justice system. I hope you will join us in November as we highlight the importance of divorcing and separating couples putting the interests of their children first.

Until the end of 2018, we are taking to social media to highlight the impact we can have on the development of family justice, and its practice and application as more professionals adopt Resolution’s Code of Practice.¹³ It is heartening to know that our repeated warnings about the unnecessary impacts of a divorce system founded on fault has (finally!) gained traction with the government. As we approach the end of the year, Resolution has renewed hope that our campaigning can and will make a difference to the hundreds of thousands who use the family courts each year. Resolution is proud to continue to work to improve the lives of separating and separated families across England and Wales, and we hope you will join us in our campaigning this November, and as a member.

1 ‘Reform of the legal requirements for divorce’, available at: https://tinyurl.com/yb4arnck The consultation closes on 10 December 2018.

2 Visit: https://tinyurl.com/y88d3nh3

3 See: http://www.resolution.org.uk/cohabitation/

4 ‘Letter: Cohabiting Couples need basic legal protections’, Resolution news release, 18 August 2018, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y9sqzm2z

5 ‘Cohabiting couples need basic legal protections’, Guardian Letters, 18 August 2018, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ycnvxkfm

6 EDM 582 ‘Legal rights for cohabitees who separate’, available at: https://www.parliament.uk/edm/2017-19/582

7 Visit: http://www.resolution.org.uk/

8 Joe Murphy, ‘Straight couples to be allowed to enter civil1 1 partnerships, Theresa May reveals’, 2 October 2018, available at: https://tinyurl.com/y98mfqxb

9 Available at: http://www.resolution.org.uk/code/

10 ‘Don't stay together for our sake, say children’, Resolution news release, 22 November 2015, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ybyc22fg

11 Liz Trinder, Debbie Braybrook, Caroline Bryson, Lester Coleman, Catherine Houlston, and Mark Sefton, ‘Finding fault? divorce law and practice in England and Wales’, available at: https://tinyurl.com/ydcnjqr3

12 Resolution’s Twitter account is @ResFamilyLaw

13 Visit: bit.ly/resstrong for information about joining Resolution