Second Reading Speech by Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, on the Family Justice Bill

4 Aug 2014 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Madam Speaker,

1. I beg to move, ‘That the Bill be now read a second time’.

1. Introduction

2. Madam, this Bill concerns the constitution, jurisdiction and powers of the Family Justice Courts, and the administration of justice in these courts.

3. It will establish a new Family Justice Court in line with the recommendations of the Committee for Family Justice, and represents the Government’s and the Courts’ commitment to fundamentally improve the Family Justice system.

4. I would like to stress at the outset that the Committee’s recommendations are not aimed at making it easier for couples to get divorced.

5. The grounds for which a divorce may be filed will not be changed.

6. Couples must be married for at least 3 years before they can file for divorce on the ground that their marriage has broken down irretrievably. That remains untouched.

7. Families should be saved as far as possible, and disputes should be brought before the courts only as the last resort.

8. But if the marriage has irretrievably broken down and the family ends up in the court system, the court process should not worsen the anguish for the family.

2. Committee for Family Justice

9. The Committee for Family Justice was established last year and comprises representatives from the Government, the Courts, social services and the legal fraternity.

10. The Committee was set up in the wake of rising divorce and annulment rates.
    1. In 2013 alone, there were a total of 7,525 divorce and annulment cases.
    2. That represented a 4% increase from the 7,237 cases in 2012, and a more than fourfold increase from the numbers in the 1980s.

11. After extensive consultations with stakeholders of the family justice system, as well as a month-long public consultation exercise, the Committee released its recommendations on a new framework for the family justice system last month.

12. Its key recommendations can be summarised in three points.

13. First, provide better support for families to resolve disputes.

14. This is to be achieved through a robust and integrated network of assistance and support for families, leveraging on existing community touch points and strengthening the capabilities of our Family Service Centres.

15. Second, create a comprehensive specialist family court structure with enhanced court case management policies and processes, as well as court powers.

16. The court will be empowered to adjudicate and resolve family disputes more effectively so as to lessen the trauma and acrimony involved.

17. Processes, particularly for matrimonial proceedings, will be significantly streamlined to reduce unnecessary delays and cost.

18. And third, to protect the best interests of the child as the interests of the child should be paramount.

19. The Government has accepted the Committee’s recommendations. These will form the basis for the overarching structure of the new family justice system moving forward.

3. The Family Justice Courts

20. This Bill implements the Committee’s recommendations concerning the establishment of the Family Justice Courts.

21. This will be a comprehensive specialist family court structure comprising:
    1. The Family Division of the High Court;
    2. The Family Courts; and
    3. The Youth Courts.

22. The objective of creating a specialist family court structure is to centralise the administration of family-related court proceedings and strengthen expertise in the management and resolution of family-related disputes.

23. Let me highlight the main features of the new Family Justice Courts.

1. Types of cases that the Family Justice Courts will hear

24. First, the Family Justice Courts will hear the entire range of family and juvenile matters. This includes:
    1. divorce;
    2. applications for personal protection orders;
    3. adoption and guardianship cases;
    4. probate matters; and
    5. matters relating to children and young persons.

25. The Family Courts will carry out the functions currently performed by the District Courts and Magistrates’ Courts in the Family and Juvenile Justice Division of the State Courts.

26. The Youth Courts will perform functions now performed by the Juvenile Courts of the State Courts.

27. The Family Justice Courts will be helmed by the Presiding Judge of the Family Justice Courts (“PJFC”), a Judge or Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court.

28. This will ensure a high standard of leadership and signals the importance of the Family Justice Courts.

29. A pool of District Judges and Magistrates will be specifically designated to hear family and juvenile related cases in the Family Courts and the Youth Courts.

30. Family Justice Courts will also have its own central Registry to receive, assign and manage all family and juvenile-related cases for greater efficiency.

31. Besides court officers to support the usual court functions, there will be counsellors, social workers, psychologists to provide a full suite of services to support the operations of the Family Justice Courts.

2. Powers of the Family Justice Courts under the Bill

32. Second, the Bill gives the Family Justice Courts new powers.

33. It empowers the Courts to order parties to undergo mediation or counselling, or to participate in a family support programme or activity as the court may direct.

34. In proceedings involving the custody or welfare of a child or involving any person, the Bill also allows the Family Justice Courts to, where necessary, appoint a
    • registered medical practitioner or
    • psychologist or
    • counsellor or
    • social worker or
    • mental health professional

to examine and assess the child or person so as to prepare expert evidence for those proceedings.

3. New and Streamlined Processes

35. Third, the Bill consolidates rules relating to the procedure and practices of the Family Justice Courts under the Family Justice Rules.

36. The court process can be daunting for families, particularly those who are not legally represented.

37. Unrepresented parties often face difficulties completing and filing court documents, and following court processes properly, and even when there are parties represented by lawyers, the inherently adversarial nature of the court system is also not suited to resolving family disputes as it often exacerbates the acrimony involved.

38. In addition, some of the existing procedure and practices have resulted in disputes taking much longer than necessary to resolve.

39. Issues that are not relevant to the court are allowed to drag out court time unnecessarily.

40. Generally speaking, there are two key issues to be dealt with in divorce proceedings – one, the division of matrimonial assets and, two, if there are children in the marriage, issues relating to the custody, care and control of children. There are really the only two issues.

41. The affidavits and other evidence presented before the court should really deal directly and squarely to the determination of these issues.

42. Unfortunately, affidavits often contain irrelevant material to the dispute or disputes at hand.

43. Parties spend inordinate amount of time and money preparing, ploughing through and replying to long affidavits from each other.

44. Sometimes, there are multiple rounds of exchanges of affidavits.

45. All this translates into higher legal costs, and for the children and parties involved, unfortunately a whole lot more stress.

46. There is also room for the number of, and time between, pre-trial conferences to be reduced.

47. The intention behind the new Family Justice Rules is to improve upon all of these. We see this as an important step, a key part of the changes that are being made.

48. In fact, the heart of the matter is the court proceedings and simplifying these court proceedings is going to be essential.

49. The Rules will simplify and streamline the processes and practices, empower the Family Justice Courts to adjudicate and resolve family disputes more holistically and without undue delay.

50. And hopefully that will reduce the trauma and acrimony involved in the divorce process.

51. To this end, we will be putting in place:
    1. A differentiated case management process;
    2. A judge-led approach to adjudicating family disputes; and
    3. Simplified and streamlined court processes.

52. The differentiated case management process will streamline case management by assigning cases to different tracks, depending on the issues involved.
    1. Urgent cases where family and child safety issues are involved may be put on an expedited track.
    2. Complex cases may require more rigorous and specialist attention and may be placed on a separate track.

53. The judge-led approach will place the Judge at the centre of the process.

54. Judges will lead and control the pace and direction of each case, in a manner tailored to the needs and sensitivities of each family.

55. They will also assess if there is still room for the dispute to be resolved amicably with additional help, for instance, through mediation or counselling.

56. The judge-led approach will be an improvement over the existing adversarial approach towards resolving family disputes.

57. The Committee also suggested several improvements to court procedures and practices, including:
    1. Simplifying court forms
    2. Developing user-friendly standard forms and templates, eg for affidavits, with strict requirements on the type and content that may be included in the affidavits to ensure that only relevant evidence is adduced.
    3. Consolidating and reducing the number of court documents to be filed
    4. Limiting the number of affidavits and pages that may be filed
    5. Reducing the number of pre-trial conferences to be held

58. These improvements can help reduce cost and expedite the resolution of family-related disputes.

59. A new Family Justice Rules Committee (“FJ Rules Committee”) will be set up by the courts and that Committee will consider how the suggestions can be implemented.

60. The new set of Rules will be put in place some time later this year or early next year.

61. Prior to their introduction, the Rules Committee constituted under the Supreme Court of Judicature Act may make Rules of Court relating to the procedure and practices of the Family Justice Courts.

62. I would like to highlight at this juncture that I will be moving an amendment to the Bill, at its Committee stage, to make clear the ability of the Rules Committee to do so.

63. I will also be moving two other amendments to the Bill to clarify that provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code and the Children and Young Persons Act presently applicable to the State Court, District Judge or the Registrar of the State Courts will also apply to the Family and Youth Court. This corrects a drafting omission.

4. Conclusion

64. Madam Speaker, in conclusion, this Bill will establish a new Family Justice Act in line with the Committee for Family Justice’s recommendations.

65. This Bill does not make divorces easier. That is not our intention.

66. What it does represent is the commitment to transform our family justice system, so that we may help troubled families resolve their disputes with as little emotional trauma and scarring as possible.

67. We cannot always prevent marriages from breaking down or families from getting into disputes.

68. However, what we can do is help families resolve their issues, either by mending the relationship, or if that is not possible, by helping them move on with their lives.

69. The Family Justice Courts will be an integral part of that process.

70. Through simplified and streamlined processes and practices, enhanced case management and the judge-led approach, the Family Justice Courts will seek to play a central role in helping families through this area of the law.

71. Madam, I beg to move.

Fact Sheet (0.11MB)
Infographics on Family Justice Court (JPG, 0.64MB)
Infographics on Streamlined Court Processes (JPG, 0.63MB)

Last updated on 06 Aug 2014