PROMINENT High Court Judge Mr Justice Coleridge broke with the judiciary’s traditional silence at the weekend and spoke out against the government in a speech to Resolution family lawyers at their annual conference in Brighton.
Referring to his 37 years of experience of family law, the judge made national news by criticising the government for “doing very little and nothing like enough” to deal with the extent of family breakdown.
He said that if fundamental reform is not introduced then the effects would be “as marked and as destructive as global warming” on ordinary families.
Godfrey Freeman, a partner at Liverpool firm Morecrofts and newly-elected chair of family law group Resolution said: “Mr Justice Coleridge has highlighted many of the very real concerns that impact daily on the work of family lawyers.
“Delays and lack of resources in the family court system are a sad reality and inevitably exacerbate the anxiety, anguish and financial cost of family breakdown.
“As the marriage stats released last week by the Office for National Statistics revealed, marriage levels are at their lowest since 1862. It seems that couples in the UK are increasingly opting for ‘I don’t’ rather than ‘I do’.
“Like Mr Justice Coleridge, Resolution has been campaigning for legal changes that will make a difference to today’s families. Reform of divorce law to remove the fault element and blame from the process would do much to improve the lot of families going through the unheaval of separation.”
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