Family Court Custody and Access Research Report 8: Discussion Paper

• NCJ Number: 154538
• Author(s): G Hall; A Lee
• Date Published: 1994
• Length: 123 pages
• Sale Source: New Zealand Dept of Justice
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: New Zealand

Annotation

An extensive research program on Family Court proceedings in New Zealand was conducted to assess problems and issues related to applications for the custody of children or access to them.

Abstract

The research program looked at the Family Court in terms of court professionals and services, court procedures, and specific topics and issues. Research findings demonstrated that most parents were satisfied with the services they received from their lawyers. Some lawyers, however, failed to give clients sufficient information, and some lawyers contributed to court delays by taking too long to get things done. Parents expressed mixed feelings about their counseling experiences. They felt that too much emphasis was placed on reconciliation by counselors and that too little attention was paid to conciliating issues in dispute. Counseling appeared to be less successful in resolving custody disputes than access disputes. Nonetheless, parents said that counseling coordinators were helpful, effective, and understanding. Most comments by parents about judges were positive, although some dissatisfaction was expressed about the attitudes and manner of certain judges. Parental comments about counsel for the child ranged from very positive to very negative. There was some support for restricting legal aid time for difficult or unreasonable parents to prevent them from continuing custody and access disputes and for restricting legal aid money to prevent lawyers from taking advantage of the system to increase their fees. There was also some support for requiring parents to contribute toward the cost of counsel for the child if they could afford it. Judges were very positive about the effectiveness of mediation conferences in custody and access disputes. Most judges favored the establishment of a specialist Family Appeal Court. Sole maternal custody was the most typical Family Court arrangement, but most children continued to see the noncustodial parent. Sexual abuse allegations were made in about 10 percent of custody and access disputes. Finally, the needs of parents for information and understanding were not always met. A Family Court model is proposed to overcome some of the problems identified by the research program. 31 references and 1 figure