THE VAST majority of family law cases before circuit courts are settled out of court, new statistics have revealed.
Three-quarters of the cases in the Western Circuit Court, 95 per cent of cases on the Eastern Circuit Court, and 23 out of 24 on the Northern Circuit Court never went to a full hearing, according the latest statistics published in the new edition of Family Law Matters, the Courts Service journal of family law reports. The statistics are from October 2006.
Michael Culloty of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) told Family Law Matters that out-of-court agreements were often the best option for couples whose relationship had ended.
The journal also discusses the ability of family courts to declare that a long marriage "never existed".
Nullity is where a court declares a marriage to be invalid because of a fundamental flaw in the ceremony, the person or the person's state of mind. If a declaration of nullity is granted, it means the marriage never existed.
This results in the reliefs available to a dependent spouse when a marriage breaks up - for example, a share in the family assets and maintenance - not being available, although children of the relationship are entitled to maintenance and access to both parents.
In one such case, the judge granted nullity, finding "there was a mutual lack of maturity in almost all the fundamental required to make a marriage work."
In another such case, however, the nullity application was refused on the grounds that no case had been made for it. No psychiatric condition was involved and there was a full, free and informed consent to marry, the judge said. He made an order for judicial separation and a property adjustment order, as well as extinguishing the couple's succession rights.
The journal also describes a case settled through collaborative law, where the parties sought agreement by negotiating directly with the help of their solicitors and not appearing as adversaries in court.
The case concerned a couple who were also business partners. They had separated in 2003, but their financial affairs were still interwoven. They had three children.
Under the settlement, they drew up a joint venture agreement whereby the husband retained 10 per cent of the family business, and 100 per cent of a venture capital business. Ruling the case in the High Court Mr Justice Kevin Feeney said: "Usually parties look for a clean break. This is different. It's a clean connection."
Three issues of Family Law Matters were published in 2007 as part of the Courts Service pilot project on family law reporting. Following the completion of the pilot project in October last, the Board of the Courts Service decided to continue it for at least one more year, with three more issues of Family Law Matters, edited by its Information Office. These are volume two.
The journal includes reports of family law cases, statistics of outcomes and opinion related to family law proceedings and is available at www.courts.ie