Legal advisory service Cafcass received its highest ever number of private family law cases last month.
The service reports 5,061 cases between individuals during May – more than in any previous month. Since the beginning of April Cafcass has received a total of 9,398 private cases, it announced – a 27 per cent jump on the 7,388 such cases received in the same period last year.
In May 2011 Cafcass received just 2,866 private cases. The previous record for cases between individuals was reached in October 2012, when Cafcass received 4,369 private family cases.
Christina Blacklaws, who sits on the Law Society council, said the figures represented an additional strain on the system following the abolition of legal aid for most family law cases earlier this year.
She told the Telegraph:
“The whole system is really creaking at seams and could collapse in on itself. This points to some quite difficult times in the future.”
Cafcass – the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service – works to support and represent the interests of children involved in family law cases.
High unemployment, more leisure, more access to know-how through the internet and more resolve by fathers to actually be fathers, means the trend in rising case numbers is predictable. The system gets caught out because family law is reactive. The government ought to make it clear that both parents will remain involved after separation and the custodial parent needs to be made well aware that that is what will happen if couple go to war. As things stand, family law is twenty years behind social trends.