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Preserving ties after break-ups a key role of new family courts: CJ

SINGAPORE — Noting that certain familial ties often have to continue even after a family breaks up, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said the new Family Justice Courts will better ensure these relationships are preserved after the case exits the courtroom.

SINGAPORE — Noting that certain familial ties often have to continue even after a family breaks up, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon said the new Family Justice Courts will better ensure these relationships are preserved after the case exits the courtroom.

Officially opened yesterday, the new body of courts — comprising the High Court’s Family Division, the Family Court and Youth Court — will hear all family-related proceedings, ranging from divorce and family violence, to adoption and guardianship. From January next year, probate cases will also fall within its jurisdiction.

The shake-up resulted from the recommendations of a high-level committee looking at how to make the family justice system less stressful and acrimonious, as well as place the interests of children who are caught in the conflict front and centre.

Speaking at the opening ceremony yesterday, CJ Menon said by bringing the entire range of work under one judicial roof, judges will be able to consider all the issues resulting from or related to family disputes within the broader narrative of the family and its history instead of as isolated occurrences.

“This is a potent consideration in the context of family work, because social science research informs us that family disputes are a function of, and often bring in their wake, a variety of other associated family issues,” he said. “After a divorce, ex-husbands are still fathers and ex-wives are still mothers. Even after contending that a parent lacks mental capacity, sons and daughters remain sons and daughters. After disputing over the assets of their deceased parents, brothers and sisters are still bound by familial ties.”

Changes under the new Family Justice Act enacted in August this year include a shift away from an adversarial approach to one where the judge will drive the direction of the hearing. In particular, judges will be empowered to order estranged parties to focus only on relevant issues, rather than file lengthy affidavits of their respective latent grouses. They will also have the power to direct parties to attend counselling and/or mediation to resolve their disputes, as well as appoint a Child Representative to give them a “louder and more forceful voice”, in the words of CJ Menon.

A new set of Family Justice Rules detailing these changes to judicial processes, as well as bringing together the Rules of Court and Matrimonial Proceedings Rules, is expected to be issued next year.

In addition, Justice Andrew Phang is chairing a committee looking into the implementation of an accreditation scheme for family lawyers. Doing so would ensure they would be “properly equipped” to practise in the new family justice landscape, said CJ Menon.

In its report published in July, the Family Justice Committee suggested an accreditation programme so that lawyers practising family law can do so “in a manner that is consistent with and promotes the ethos of the new family justice system”.

While training should not be compulsory, the committee said it would be desirable for family lawyers to go through specialist training comprising modular courses in non-court dispute resolution methods, the judge-managed approach and less adversarial techniques in family litigation, as well as non-legal aspects of family cases such as the availability of social support services.

Family lawyers TODAY spoke to welcomed the idea of accreditation. Ms Malathi Das from Joyce A Tan & Partners said it will empower family lawyers to keep up with new processes and new modes of family law.

Another family lawyer, Mr Raymond Yeo, said: “Practising family law is a very specialised area and there should be specialised training and accreditation for practitioners who want to specialise in this area.”

Meanwhile, Judicial Commissioner Valerie Thean, the Presiding Judge of the Family Justice Courts, said in her speech yesterday that while there will be changes in the sweeping reforms, none should cause alarm or anxiety.

Rather, the changes to the system will “fully actualise the promise of our past work”.

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