Restrictions on cross-examination at family courts


Rodney Hylton-Potts, leading family lawyer has warned that restrictions on cross-examination by litigants in person may be needed, if the family courts are to cope with the impact of 2013 legal aid cuts.

He said judges were was likely to promote a new process for standard cases to help courts cope with a volume of previously represented parents”.

‘Judges will devise an inquisitorial environment within which most decisions will be made.

Instead of parties cross-examining each other, judges will identify the issues they needed to explore in more depth and examine the parties themselves. It will be more akin to the French initial investigatory criminal system, whether magistrates takes over the enquiry,

Litigants in person without specialist advice have little idea what a conventional court process entails and some will have no desire or ability to take it on board.

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