ABSTRACT
A new approach to child disputes The Children Act 1989 made major changes in both the public and private law relating to children. Following the marginalisation of the divorce suit itself – so that it is now more often than not a process handled, albeit under the advice of the solicitor, by the client as litigant in person, now forms a major part of the specialist family lawyer’s workload. This significant workload is divided between private law (cases about the respective rights and duties of children and parents inter se) and public law (cases about the duties of the local authority in respect of children living in their area, and of the rights of children and parents in relation to the local authority). While there are specialist child law solicitors who aim to do all their own work without the aid of counsel except in rare cases, child matters will also probably be the most common area, apart possibly from ancillary relief, in which the ordinary general practitioner will both want to get a good deal of simple work done within the firm and also need to instruct counsel in a number of more complex matters. Principals can allow trainees to go to the district judge on solicitors’ appointments so this is a fruitful area for opportunities in advocacy and for handling files independently. Thus, as a keen trainee you will need: • a sound working knowledge of at least the
private law aspects of the Children Act; • some outline knowledge of how the public law
provisions might impact on advice to clients consulting you about the private law;
• an ability to watch trends and appreciate the importance of the latest cases (because of the lack of application of the doctrine of precedent – so that decisions are only a guide to how a court might interpret the exercise of its duty within the statutory framework – child work can be a fast moving field) and;
• an ability to research the law quickly where necessary in order to decide whether counsel should be instructed.
