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Children should be in on proceedings
02/07/2007
Lord Justice Wilson, a senior judge in family law who sits in the Court of Appeal,
has said that children should be included in legal proceedings so they can understand what is happening.
From solicitors to the court rooms of Britain and Northern Ireland, he said the legal system was "largely oblivious of the damaging bewilderment of children caught up in family proceedings", the Times reports.
The judge has called on his colleagues to ensure that children were not ignored in court proceedings so youngsters would be able to understand what was going on.
He said: "The stress upon their fragile minds must in some cases be awful; and it is by no means all necessary."
He added that it was imperative "to devise a system by which not just in some but in all types of family proceedings we can dispel such of the fears of children as can honestly be dispelled, inform them to some extent about the nature of the proceedings raging above their heads and answer some of the questions which are likely to beset them".
This news comes after an NSPCC poll found that in 37 per cent of court cases involving children, youngsters had not been consulted or made to understand what was happening.
"How can a child express their views and wishes for the future without an understanding of the proceedings? In any event, they had a right to know what was going on," Lord Justice Wilson concluded.
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has said that children should be included in legal proceedings so they can understand what is happening.
From solicitors to the court rooms of Britain and Northern Ireland, he said the legal system was "largely oblivious of the damaging bewilderment of children caught up in family proceedings", the Times reports.
The judge has called on his colleagues to ensure that children were not ignored in court proceedings so youngsters would be able to understand what was going on.
He said: "The stress upon their fragile minds must in some cases be awful; and it is by no means all necessary."
He added that it was imperative "to devise a system by which not just in some but in all types of family proceedings we can dispel such of the fears of children as can honestly be dispelled, inform them to some extent about the nature of the proceedings raging above their heads and answer some of the questions which are likely to beset them".
This news comes after an NSPCC poll found that in 37 per cent of court cases involving children, youngsters had not been consulted or made to understand what was happening.
"How can a child express their views and wishes for the future without an understanding of the proceedings? In any event, they had a right to know what was going on," Lord Justice Wilson concluded.
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