Domestic Abuse & Advocacy in Private Children Act Proceedings

Introduction

Many lawyers find Children Act matters difficult to deal with because they feel ill equipped to advise on issues of domestic abuse in a more rounded sense than just ‘what is abuse’. The strategic and tactical narrative around what to do, what to expect, how likely your client is going to be to cope with the litigation, realistic outcomes, is not straightforward.

This course is suitable for family lawyers who have a running caseload of private law children matters. You will be about to dip your toe into the waters of advocacy or have just started to. It assumes a basic knowledge of the Children Act and working knowledge of the process for issuing proceedings and running a case through to a final hearing where there is domestic abuse.

Much of this course covers non-legal techniques, but all will hopefully help you make sense and improve your skills in this important and meaningful work.

What You Will Learn

This course will cover the following:

• Crafting a re-usable template position statement for Children Act matters, ready for use at a FDRHA
• Primary rules legislation and case law for domestic abuse procedure
• How to help your client answer the ‘so what’ test - why should they pursue a fact find, should they roll up abuse into the welfare determination?
• Understand how domestic abuse feels and be able to screen for it, describe it and be part of someone’s healing journey
• How to be ready for the tactics of control and manipulation from the perpetrator
• Recognise and screen when you act for a perpetrator
• Be able to advise a perpetrator in a useful and candid way
• Protect yourself from harm when you act for a perpetrator or a victim
• Start to recognise and develop negotiation techniques
• Using role play to:
• Improve vocal and speech technique
• Craft smoother, more professional sounding submissions
• Understand rights of audience
• Deal with McKenzie friends
• Become more confident with court etiquette