Thousands of children “fallen victim” to record backlogs in family courts, Law Society President warns

The Law Society President, Nick Emmerson, has called on the next government to protect children “trapped” in a family court crisis due to record backlogs.

According to new data published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) this week, there were 27,445 children involved in new family cases between January and March – with 20,935 children involved in private law applications and 6,510 in public law applications.

Law Society president Nick Emmerson said: “The family courts are in a dire state. Children are forced to wait almost a year in limbo, as they are failed by a system that should aim to protect them.”

On average, it takes 11 months to decide where children will live and with whom they will have contact in private law cases, the Law Society noted.

Combining both public and private law cases involving children, a total of 103,676 children were trapped in the family court backlogs over 2023.

Emmerson added: “Our children must be prioritised by the next government. Last year saw more than 100,000 children trapped in the family courts backlogs. We cannot allow 25,000 more children to become collateral damage to a justice system in crisis.”

He called for the restoration of legal aid for early advice in family matters - so more families could resolve their matters outside the courts, and those who still need to go to court would be “better prepared”.

He added: “The next government must also commit to taking forward the early advice pilot, which will help people resolve their problems earlier and therefore reduce the court backlogs.”

Lottie Winson