Researching Reform’s open letter to the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, which asks the senior judge to overhaul the family courts’ approach to cases has been published by The Times.

The letter asks the President to remove the adversarial process inside the family courts, and explains that the culture inside the system is responsible for the system’s deterioration rather than austerity measures.

The letter outlines how the adversarial process increases conflict, allows lawyers to profit from the chaos that follows and as a result leaves law firms with no incentive to address the courts’ underlying issues. In the open letter, Researching Reform uses private family law processes to highlight the damage the current approach causes, and how an adversarial justice system for family cases has ultimately destroyed the legal profession.

The letter is behind a pay wall but is available to read at no cost by registering your details with The Times.

For those interested in legal issues, The Times Law daily newsletter, The Brief, sends everything straight to your inbox so you don’t have to fish around for the latest developments within the family justice system and elsewhere. Twitter users can also follow The Brief over at @JudgeJohnHack.

Very many thanks to The Times for publishing our letter.