Family meltdown

All is not well in the world of family matters. In the past month, statistics have revealed the number of marriages in 2006 to be the lowest for more than 140 years and divorces the highest since records began; a High Court judge protested at the Government’s ‘mismanagement and neglect of the family justice system’; the president of the Association of District Judges thought the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 was probably doing more harm than good; the family law group, Resolution, described the Government’s failure to implement the Law Commission’s recommendations on cohabitation as a ‘whitewash’ and David Burrows feared the proposed New Procedural Code for Family Proceedings goes nowhere near doing what its title suggests. Read all about it below.