Casualties of Divorce - Helping the Children of Broken Families





Project Summary:

This project aims to look at the comparative experience of divorce across jurisdictions and appraise the help available to mitigate and minimise the trauma many children experience when parents divorce in different countries. The primary goal of this study is to draw inspiration from successful support facilities available to children from different countries in order to provide benefits to

children who are suffering in the UK, hopefully encouraging the UK authorities to do more to safeguard children from the psychological and social harm which can be caused by fragmentation of the family unit.


Places I will be visiting:

Sydney, Australia

Los Angeles, USA

Toronto, Canada

Vancouver, Canada

New York, USA

Florida, USA

Thursday 10 June 2010

Los Angeles over and out. Here come the Canadians...


Dear Blogglets,
Just a little update before the Canadian leg of the journey!- It is SO0000 hot here: it is terribly uncomfortable in a suit in this climate- however they cope on a daily basis is beyond me! Pheeeeew! Everything progressing nicely here - lots of unexpected contacts which have worked out splendidly in terms of meetings and exposure to the real system of family liaison here in LA. Shall post with more info when I have a little more time xx

Monday 7 June 2010

Pasadena

The Deparment of Children and Family Services on Colarado Blvd

The Superior Ct, Pasadena: I literally could not get the entire building in one shot!

The somewhat palatial City Hall!

Goodbye Sydney, Hello LA!

Dear Blogglets,
After cramming in my last few meetings with judges, journalists, mediators and parents who had been through the family law process in Australia it was finally time for me to say farewell to Sydney and as is generally always the case, the further I delved the more I wanted to know. Such a shame to leave as I feel Sydney has so much more to tell, however California beckoned and I departed on Saturday for LAX: possibly the most congested airport on the face of the planet- 2 hours queue to get through customs and even my English Stiff upper lip was faltering- the tutting began in earnest about an hour in and didnt desist until I was asked unceremoniously to slap my hand on a scanner and stare into a security camera like a half-mad, sleep deprived lunatic checking into an asylum. It was very strange to arrive technically before I had even set off-crossing the international date line wreaks havoc with the old body clock it would seem and I have been driving everybody mad with my incessant Spanish inquisition about what date / time it is. Oh dear. After arranging meetings in Pasadena suburb and mercilessly bullying my extremely lovely friend with an extremely jammy job in PR to let me sneakily steal her free hotel pass for the Langham there under the heading 'it would reaaaaaalllly help out, I need to budget and when are you ever going to get chance to use it anyway' I am feeling (un)surprisingly revitalized.

I am still surprised at the scale of it all here: the court in Pasadena is ENORMOUS- you could fit the entire RCJ into the East Wing! Furthermore, City Hall which is just down the road and where all marriages are officiated and recorded is extremely plush and idyllic, evidence I suppose of just how much money and how many people pass through the court system on a daily basis here.

Went into court today which was an extremely odd but informative experience: lots of emphasis on court etiquette which was strangely reminiscent of old episodes of Judge Judy which made me chuckle somewhat-so much of it seems like a parody of the English traditions but any suggestion of 'borrowing' was shot down quickly when braoched under the insistence of everything being done a purely organic 'American way'. National pride for you I suppose! In any event, I am extremely surprised at what a novelty the English accent is over here and I found myself hamming it up without really thinking about it. I even caught myself saying the words 'I am tremendously grateful', pretty sure I'd have even Hugh Grant cringing at that one. All in all I had an extremely entertaining day, not least contributed to by a rather surreal moment spent discussing the ins and outs of Seal and Heidi Klum's relationship with a court usher. Funny times.

Also paid a visit to the LA County Department of Child and Family Services which was extremely useful. However, I almost got lynched trying to take a photo of a Child Interaction room as it is apparently against Federal law to photograph any confidential department. Oh dear: would be just my luck to break the law whilst trying to research it (and I'm pretty sure being arrested isn't a terribly ambassadorial activity) Oooops, must remember to be less of a hopeless tourist in future!

Am headed to downtown Los Angeles as of tomorrow for more meetings. Am meeting with a Child and Family Therapist tomorrow and shall be speaking with Child Support Services about mediation services later in the week. Am also planning a trip to discuss referral of high parental conflict cases with a P.A.C.T administrator and hopefully shall get some more court time if the cases don't settle (as this is what happened at the court doors today: obviously good for the parties and for the children but unfortunate for me!) As always I shall keep you posted with my progress!

Monday 31 May 2010

End of week 2

Dear Blogglets,
What a week it has been! I have been in and out of court like a jack-in-a-box and have sat with two federal magistrates and three judges so far. Special thanks to HHJustice Le Poeur Trench, HHJustice Rose and HHJustice Collier, who have all been thoroughly lovely and tremendously helpful with the research I am conducting and were all extremely generous with their time. Next stop the FRC and tomorrow an interview with the spokesperson for the Safer Family Law Campaign. I will be speaking with Chief Justice The Right Hon. Diana Bryant at some stage this week and will let you know how that goes. I am still pretty in awe of the ADR and mediation work that goes on here, and the LAT (Less adversarial trial) seems to me the biggest success of all. The Aussie reforms, it would seem, have literally opened up the system to a whole different style of adjudication- an impressive hybrid of the old common law model and newer inquisitorial style which has managed to compliment as opposed to scupper the traditions at work here. We have a lot to catch up on I think. Watch this space.

Well...I had a busy week followed by a busy weekend: went ski-diving at the beach at Woolongong which was an incredible experience, heart-stoppingly beautiful and utterly magical AND managed to hand feed some giraffes at Taronga Zoo thanks to a friend being roomies with the keeper there-we got the opportunity to go into the enclosures and managed to see some really cool stuff the public don't get to see.

I am absolutely loving Sydney- a wonderful place with wonderfully warm people and I shall be enormously sad to leave. I am however extremely excited about getting to grips with Los Angeles and familiarising myself with their way of doing things- lets hope there are more lessons to be learned from them!

Monday 24 May 2010

Parramatta Suburb Family Courts

With His Honour Justice Collier
Antoine Kazzi and Juliette Khoury Judicial Associates at the Parramatta Courts

Sunday 23 May 2010

"Sir, this is not Judge Judy, you are my court now-put your hand down"

Dear Blogglets,

Well, the end of my first official week in Sydney and it has been amazing! I have been to lectures, met with the Sydney Law School faculty, sat in Court and have heard a native litigant use the word 'Bonza' in court. Could life be better? Weather has not been amazing- a fair shed load of rain but an epic amount of sunshine in the inbetween periods and a weekend filled with sightseeing and a full 'cultural inauguration'. The benefits of living in a house with a native is seeing the true Sydney in all its glory in addition to the cool touristy stuff. I am as ever extremely impressed with the system over here- quick, expedient, cost-efficient and frankly ruthlessly effective. Dispensing with the formalities and getting to the nitty gritty of the dispute without counsel's intervention at the intake stage seems to be a constructive way of getting beyond the airing of dirty laundry and animosity which is so endemic to the family courts. Am off to spend some time in Sydney's Family Relationship Center this week, after court on Monday and Tuesday so hopefully I will have a more broad understanding of the key workings of the relationship between Australian litigation and mediation after that x

Friday 14 May 2010

T'was the Night before....

Blogglets,

The eve of my departure...to give you but a taste of the progress thus far: Bedroom looks like Beirut on a bad day, Mother is running around throwing things indiscriminately into my overstuffed suitcase in what can only be described as a state of frenzy and I am finding bits of underwear and lightweight tops rolled up in shoes I'm not even planning to take with me. In other words totally standard. Farewells have begun, some more emotional than others - parents took particular offence to my mellow approach to severing the umbilical chord but I think my tears at leaving my beloved labrador for months on end may have added insult to injury on that front. So all in all I am as ready as I ever shall be and life is about ready to start 'down under'. Arrive in Sydney at 5:30am on Monday morning (ouch) so until then I shall be praying to avoid all things ash cloud / oil spill and hope I make it to Oz in one pice after touchdown in Bangkok! Wish me luck! x