London and Gloucestershre Family Drug and Alcohol Court

An article in the Solicitors Journal 3 March 2015 entitled “Helping parents make a change for the better” by District Judge Julie Exton is well worth a read. (www.solicitorsjournal.com)

The Drug and Alcohol Court firstly in London, and now in Gloucestershire, has dedicated social workers, nurses, health visitors, psychiatrists and psychologists on hand in addition to the legal professionals.

The health professionals make a recommendation as to whether the case should come before the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) and the Judge decides.

If there is not real progress within 26 weeks the Judges wrap up the experiment/attempt.

The unique feature is that the parents meet the Judge for a non-legal review every two weeks with the social worker.

Parents, and their lawyers, are troubled by a parent having to talk to a Judge direct without legal help on hand, but careful preparation can make this not an issue and many fixed fee lawyers like Hylton-Potts offer a service whereby the proceedings may be adjourned for 10 minutes whilst the parent gets legal advice on the telephone and reports back to the Judge.

A successful case is called a “graduation” and a Supervision Order of 12 months is often put in place.

The FDAC model is attractive and child focused.

If you are involved in a dispute involving children or drug or alcohol abuse Hylton-Potts at their London office, but helping clients throughout the country at fixed fees could be the answer.

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