Your browser is out of date or unsupported. As a result, some elements of this website may not be fully functional. For the best possible user experience, it is recommended that you use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.
TV Edwards Solicitors Logo
Call us on: 020 3440 8000
  • About Us
    • Whitechapel Office
    • Clapham Junction Office
    • What Our Clients Say
    • Cybercrime and Fraud Warning
    • Pricing
    • Make a Secure Payment
  • Services
    • You & Your Family You & Your Family
      • Family and Children Law
      • Wills and Probate
      • Personal Injury
      • Dispute Resolution
      • Mental Health
      • Court of Protection
      • Community Care
      • Criminal Defence
    • You & Your Property You & Your Property
      • Residential Property
      • Property Disputes
      • Housing
    • You & Your Business You & Your Business
      • Commercial Property
      • Commercial Litigation
      • Business Crime and Fraud
      • Alcohol & Entertainment Licensing
    • _
  • Our People
    • Partners and Management Team
    • Family and Children
    • Property
    • Wills and Probate
    • Court of Protection
    • Criminal Defence
    • Dispute Resolution
    • Personal Injury
    • Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing
    • Mental Health
    • Community Care
    • Housing
  • News and Blogs
  • Careers
TV Edwards Solicitors Logo
  • You & Your Family
    • Family and Children Law
    • Wills and Probate
    • Personal Injury
    • Dispute Resolution
    • Mental Health
    • Court of Protection
    • Community Care
    • Criminal Defence
  • You & Your Property
    • Residential Property
    • Property Disputes
    • Housing
  • You & Your Business
    • Commercial Property
    • Commercial Litigation
    • Business Crime and Fraud
    • Alcohol & Entertainment Licensing
  • About Us
    • Whitechapel Office
    • Clapham Junction Office
    • What Our Clients Say
    • Pricing
    • Make a Secure Payment
  • Our People
    • Community Care
    • Court of Protection
    • Criminal Defence
    • Dispute Resolution
    • Family and Children
    • Housing
    • Alcohol and Entertainment Licensing
    • Mental Health
    • Partners and Management Team
    • Personal Injury
    • Wills and Probate
    • Property
    • Support Team
  • News and Blogs
  • Careers
Call us on: 020 3440 8000
×
  • Divorce
    • Divorce process
    • Finances
    • Civil partnerships
    • Child arrangements
  • Children
    • Child arrangements
    • Social services
    • Adoption
    • Special guardianship
    • Relocation
    • Abduction
  • Modern Parenting
    • Surrogacy
    • Fertility
    • Donor conception
    • Co-parenting
    • Adoption
  • Unmarried couples
    • Pre nups, post nups and pre partnership agreements
    • Cohabitation agreements
    • Separation
    • Finances for children
  • Domestic abuse
    • Domestic abuse
    • Forced marriage
    • FGM
×

Start typing to search.

    ×
    TV Edwards Solicitors Logo

    020 3440 8000

    enquiries@tvedwards.com

    Find us at Whitechapel and Clapham Junction

    Contact Us

    Please enter your first name(s).
    Please enter your surname.
    Please enter a valid email address.
    Please enter your contact number.
    Please select an option.
    Please enter a message.

    We’ll only use this information to handle your enquiry and we won’t share it with any third parties. For more details see our Privacy Policy.

    TV EDWARDS SOLICITORS LLP

    Cross examination of victims of abuse in family cases

    In D (Appeal: Failure of Case Management) [2017] EWHC 1907 (Fam) (24 July 2017)the Court of Appeal recently considered the...

    default

    Back to News & Blogs 18th August 2018

    Blog author thumbnail
    Alpa Ghelani
    Blog Children Law Domestic Violence Family

    In D (Appeal: Failure of Case Management) [2017] EWHC 1907 (Fam) (24 July 2017)the Court of Appeal recently considered the mother’s application for an appeal which raised issues about judicial case management and in particular the Court’s approach to the cross examination of an alleged victim by an alleged abuser.

    Background

    The main issue in the case was whether or not the father should have contact.  The proceedings began with cross applications by the parents in January 2013 when the child was aged 3.  The child and father had not seen each other since then and the mother opposed any contact alleging that she suffered very serious abuse at the father’s hands. There was a suspension of the proceedings and it was not until the father was acquitted by the criminal court of all charges arising from mother’s allegation that the family proceedings resumed.

    The matter came before the family court when directions were given by a Deputy District Judge with specific reference to Practice Direction 12J CHILD ARRANGEMENTS AND CONTACT ORDERS: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HARM, requiring the father, who had throughout been unrepresented, to write down any questions that he wished to put to the mother, so that they could be put to her by the court.  In August 2015, the matter was specifically allocated to another judge and her first task was to conduct a fact finding hearing, it being obvious that the allegations made by the mother would have a strong effect on the welfare decisions depending upon any findings. The case was listed for a fact finding hearing on no less than 8 occasions, and repeatedly adjourned in part due to delays with obtaining transcripts from the father’s criminal trial. In addition to that, the father was directed to set out his questions to the mother in writing.  However, he failed to comply with this direction on a number of occasions.

    The fact finding process finally began in March 2017, when the mother gave evidence from behind a screen, as part of special measures. Much of the 5 day hearing hearing was taken up by the Mother giving evidence in response to questions by her barrister. During this time there was a huge amount of debate between the judge and mother’s counsel as to how father’s case was to be put to the mother.  During the course of the week, a Cafcass officer was asked to give evidence, but the court decided her  enquiries were inadequate, and the court appointed a Children’s Guardian to help represent the child’s best interests.  Before the hearing could re-start, the judge made three attempts to find other ways of testing the  mother’s evidence, including  exploring how  the father might be legally represented. The judge went so far as to  ask the child’s solicitor to cross examination the mother, on behalf of the father, which the child’s solicitor declined to do. Eventually, the father wrote to the court saying he was willing to forego cross examination of the mother altogether, if that allowed the case to move forward.  Despite this,  the judge decided that the father could directly cross examine the mother, as long as he did not ask any questions of a sexual nature. This decision led to the current appeal.

    The Appeal

    The mother appealed for the following reasons:

    1. The judge was wrong to allow any direct cross examination of the mother by the father.
    2. The judge was overly lenient to the father in the face of his non-compliance with court orders.
    3. The judge was wrong to put pressure on the child’s solicitor to cross examine the mother. 
    4. The judge should have given further reasons for her decision, when asked.
    5. The judge herself invited guidance from the High Court. 

    The mother  also said that there had been a general failure of case management during the appeal hearing itself.

    The father asked the court to dismiss the appeal, so that the  hearing, due the following week, could  go ahead.

    On behalf of the child, it was stated that the Children’s Guardian’s role was not to conduct cross examination on behalf of anyone other than the child, and the High court should give clear directions as to how the case should be conducted in the future, if the matter remained with the same judge.

    Mr Justice Peter Jackson allowed the appeal on all grounds.  He said that the history showed a “chronic failure of judicial case management” and that the “repeated inability of the Court to hold a fact finding hearing had led to prolonged and indefensible delay in making an important decision for this young child”. 

    He went on to decide that;

    • The judge had been wrong not to appreciate her powers under practice direction 12J (which sets out what the Family Court should do in any case in which there are allegations of domestic violence or abuse).
    • The judge had assumed that the father had the right to cross examine the mother, even though the court had decided how the mother was to be crossed examined two years earlier. There was no proper basis for revisiting that plan, particularly as the father himself was not complaining about it. 
    • Having decided to revisit the issue of cross examination, the judge did not deal with it effectively, but instead continued to consider what to do, while the mother was giving evidence. That made the hearing unproductive and unfair to the mother, who was entitled to know how her evidence was to be treated before she entered the witness box. 
    • The decision was unprincipled, and wholly unworkable in expecting the court and the father to divide up questions, depending on whether they were sexual or not.
    • The reasons given by the judge for her decision were inadequate to justify her conclusions; and, when asked to do so, she should have addressed the substantial issues more fully. 
    • The judge’s attempt to delegate the questioning to the child’s solicitor was entirely inappropriate

    The appeal was therefore allowed in full, with the case to be heard afresh, in front of a different judge.    

    If you would like advice about domestic abuse or cases involving children were there are allegations of domestic abuse please do contact our accredited specialists on 020 3440 8000 or by email at A_FamilyReferrals@tvedwards.com

    Related Services:

    Domestic Violence
    Family Law
    Children

    More Articles

    Article Image

    Wilkins v Serco

    26th January 2023
    Article Image

    The top five things you need to know about deputyship

    12th January 2023
    Article Image

    Life as a trainee solicitor at TV Edwards LLP

    9th January 2023
    Article Image

    Updates to the police bail regime – how long can I be kept on police bail?

    6th January 2023
    Article Image

    When couples separate, what are the legalities around future use of their frozen embryos?

    14th December 2022
    Article Image

    How is Litigation Akin to the Game of Chess?

    14th December 2022
    All Articles 

    Contact Us

    Call: 020 3440 8000|View our Whitechapel Office|View our Clapham Junction Office

    Cyber Essentials Accreditation Logo
    Lexcel Logo
    The Legal 500 – The Clients Guide to Law Firms
    Chambers 2021 Logo

    © 2023 TV Edwards LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (465533) and is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England and Wales number 0C325696. Details of the SRA Code of Conduct can be found at sra.org.uk. Registered name: TV Edwards LLP. Registered Office: 35-37 Mile End Road, London, E1 4TP.

    TV Edwards Solicitors Logo

    Contact Us

    Call us on: 020 3440 8000

    View our Whitechapel office

    View our Clapham Junction office


    • Quick Links
      • Pricing
      • Pay Online
      • Careers with TV Edwards
    • Insights
      • Blogs
    • Regulatory
      • Legal Disclaimer
      • Terms of Business
      • Accessibility
      • Privacy Policy – Website Users
      • Privacy Policy – General
      • Cookies
      • Complaints Procedure

    Find us on:


    TV Edwards Solicitors Logo
    • Divorce
    • Children
    • Modern Parenting
    • Unmarried couples
    • Domestic abuse
    © 2022 TV Edwards LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (465533) and is a Limited Liability Partnership registered in England and Wales number 0C325696. Details of the SRA Code of Conduct can be found at sra.org.uk. Registered name: TV Edwards LLP. Registered Office: 35-37 Mile End Road, London, E1 4TP.
    Use of Cookies

    Our website requires the use of cookies. Enabling all cookies makes sure the website works as smoothly as possible, and also helps us to improve it. Some cookies are activated by default but tracking cookies aren't switched on without your consent.

    For our full policy, visit our cookies page.


    Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

    Necessary

    Necessary cookies enable core functionality of the website, including security, SRA Regulationand reCAPTCHA form verifications. It is possible to disable these cookies in your browser settings, but this could affect the functionality of the website.


    Recommended
    Off On

    Recommended cookies improve your experience of our site by helping to display our latest client reviews and embedded maps of our office locations. You can find full details on Google's privacy policy here.


    Analytics
    Off On

    We'd like to use analytics services provided by Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Ruler Analytics to collect anonymous information from our visitors. The data we collect will help us to improve our website and services. Learn more about how we use these services and our commitment to safeguarding data in our Cookie Policy.

    Settings Save & Close