Mr Justice Ryder’s report into the modernisation of Family Justice has now been published.

Mr Justice Ryder was appointed in November following the Family Justice Review, with a brief to make recommendations by the end of July after months of wide-ranging consultation.

The report, Judicial proposals for the modernisation of family justice, contains a number of suggestions for improvement for the Family Courts, including:

• The single Family Court will be the vehicle for a significant change of culture characterised by strong judicial leadership and management and evidence-based good practice.
• The single Family Court will be a network of Local Family Court Centres judicially led and managed by the Designated Family Judges, where all levels of judge and magistrate will sit as Judges of the Family Court.
• The effective management of judicial resources will help to reduce delay by better deployment practices which improve continuity and listing.
• The immediate challenge is to develop effective methods of assisting self-representing litigants in private law cases, while maintaining fairness to all parties.
• Self-representing litigants will need to be assisted to understand and comply with the procedures which are necessary to achieve fairness in financial remedy cases.
• The High Court’s unique jurisdiction will be preserved.
• Consideration should always be given to how the voice of the child is to be heard in family proceedings.

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