Court of conciliation

WE FEEL confident that the Family Court pilot project which was finally launched at Nipdec House on Wednesday will blossom into a permanent institution to serve the entire country. Over the next two years of its pilot status, the Court will deal with matrimonial matters filed in the Port-of-Spain High Court and in the St George West Magesterial district. But so much careful and expert planning and execution have gone into the launching of this project that we have no doubts about its eventual success and the vital role it will play in helping to stabilise the country’s family life.

The advent of the Court realises a long held vision aimed at changing the traditional approach and practice of the law in dealing with family disputes which were always adversarial and quite often acrimonious, leaving legacies of hatred, alienation and bitterness in which children were the primary victims. What is now replacing this is a radically different, even revolutionary, institution which offers a full range of services expertly designed and appointed to seek the best interest of all parties in a spirit and atmosphere of conciliation, sensitivity and amicable resolution.

Chief Justice Sat Sharma makes the point in his opening address: “The Family Court was conceived out of the urgent need to begin our ascent to civility which carries with it a sense of collective responsibility, rather than a pointing of fingers and the attributing of blame. It represents a coming together rather than a dividing of ourselves in the interest of our own preservation. It marks the beginning of the end to the exploiting of our fragile human relationships for individul gain. What was demanded here was a bold and imaginative approach to a situation about which we are all seriously concerned — the disintegration of family life.

“While the law of itself cannot give sacredness to life, it must be in practical human contact with, and of service to, the national community especially at this time.” There is no doubt, as far as we are concerned, that the breakdown in family life and its agonising fall-out are the root causes of many serious problems which beset our society. We have seen this deterioration and its distressing effects grow worse over the years, producing acts of neglect, abuse and violence that demean our country.

Hopefully, the Family Court, in its new approach to resolving such disputes, will now serve to provide an effective check and balance to this decaying situation. The Chief Justice raises our hope for such an outcome when he describes the Court as “a significant milestone in our jurisprudence.” This, he added, may be said to be our finest hour, “for this Court signals a radical departure from the way we have practised law and administered justice that was left to us as part of our colonial inheritance.”

Inauguration of the Family Court is the result of the effort of a range of concerned professionals and public service officers, whose contribution must be commended, particularly members of the Family Court Committee appointed by former Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillip, whose report formed the blueprint for the Court’s establishment. It seems that great care went into the establishment of the Court whose various services are manned by professional personnel trained in the resolution of family issues. We expect that it will now proceed to fulfil its mission and create the kind of social turnaround the CJ has described as “our ascent to civility.”