Family Troubles in the Courts

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 20

Family Troubles in the Courts

4 I t p ’"U7‘— r ? HE domestic law which the police courts administer has been | greatly improved in recent years. The task now is to improve Hie methods of hearing, so that the real causes of dispute may be revealed and dealt with,” writes Mr. Claud Mullins, in his book, “Marriage, Children and God.” “In the first place stringent limitations should be placed upon the Press. This was done in the Divorce Court by the Judicial Proceedings < Regulation of Reports) Act of 1926. How can husbands and wives be ■xpected to talk frankly about their real troubles, and how can tho court 'ire helpful advice if the Press is free to report what is said, or, as more usually happens, to report a few disconnected remarks that give quite a false impression of the proceedings? “Secondly, the general publie should be excluded, as has long been the practice in our Children's Courts.

“Thirdly, domestic cases should be no longer jumbled up with criminal or other kinds of civil cases. I once sat at a London Police Court and the following constituted my afternoon's work:--6 trivial summonses

for playing football or cards in the street; 2 for gaming; 3 for street obstruction by motors; 5 for excessive speed; 2 against motorists for not being insured ... 4 for offences in regard to insurance stamps; 4 for obstruction with costers’ barrows; 1 assault case; and then, when about two hours had elapsed, I turned to a summons against a . husband by his wife for neglecting to maintain her, one by a wife for her husband’s persistent cruelty, and four summonses by wives for arrears on maintenance orders, each of the latter involving the issue of the husband's imprisonment. “At the opening of the court I counted 19 police officers in uniform, all there in connection with the first part of the afternoon’s work. I find it impossible to believe that this is the best that police courts can do, “Many critics have urged that the domestic jurisdiction should be entirely removed from police courts, but I disagree with this view. No other court in this country knows how to do justice simply, quickly and cheaply. It would be disastrous to take the poor people's domestic troubles away from the police courts, but surely domestic cases could be separated from the other work of the courts and. as far as possible, be heard at separate sittings and tn a different, way from other cases.”