GOING.........GOING..................GONE!

I found out a few hours ago, that some law firm in Dunedin had placed the following advertisement in the Dunedin Buy Sell Exchange (does that paper still exist!?)

 BIG CHANGES IN FAMILY COURT ONLY 5 WEEKS AWAY PM ME TO FIND OUT HOW THIS COULD AFFECT YOU.

Wow, sounds exciting......not

So I emailed the law firm and this was the reply.

Hi Wendy,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Unfortunately the changes I mentioned have come about on a timeframe that is
a bit unrealistic - we lawyers are being provided training on 17 March for
the changes that take place on 31 March and it seems that the details are
still being finalised as we speak!

Effectively though, it involves an attempt to remove lawyers from the Family
Court as much as possible and the removal of the existing Family Court
counselling services.

Clients will be able to see us for initial advice but then are made to
engage in compulsory parenting programmes and attend compulsory mediation
with the other person without legal or other support and only after that, if
there is still no agreement, are they able to proceed to the Family Court -
and then, only with lawyers if the Judge asks for this.

I hope you can make some sense of that!

The long and short of it is, I recommend getting in now if you can.  There
are some exceptions of course if there are serious issues like drug and
alcohol risk factors or domestic violence, in which case people may be able
to have lawyers throughout the process as they do now.  Likewise, even if
you do get in now some of this will affect you but the level to which I am
not sure.  For example I know that the counselling referrals made prior to
31 March will still be honoured and you are likely to be able to have a
great level of legal assistance at this point in the process.

I roared with laughter! and I will give you my undying opinion of this, once I come back from lunch with my darling hubby.................poor wee lawyers, going to be out of the job!

So, this lawyer thinks the 'time frame' is 'unrealistic'.
I don't think 'changes' could have come soon enough, nor did it really go as far as it should have.

'An attempt to remove lawyers'.
Lawyers need to be fully removed! Show me a family court lawyer that has ever done any good for a child and families? We have family court lawyers wanting to supply children to pedophiles, abuse good parents, lie, then complain over why they should care about any child's safety?

I made perfect sense of the third paragraph.
Step 1, ask a lawyer (who will charge you $500 for the consulting fee) about the family court.
Step 2, go to parenting programme.
Step 3, go to mediation.
Step 4, go to court.
Step 5, Judge will issue you instructions on getting a lawyer.

ALL WITHOUT A LAWYER

Did that seem hard? ;)

But no, there is always one lawyer who likes to complicate things- opps I lied- there is in fact 1200 family court lawyers who like to complicate even the most simple of matters.

The long and short is, don't touch a family court lawyer with a ten foot barge pole.

So lets all have a cry over the fact family court lawyers are becoming an extinct breed (thank god).

I wonder what they will do now? since they sucked in all other areas of law (which is why they are family court lawyers).
Perhaps they could all follow Judge Emma Smith to Syria? or go jump of the nearest bridge?

Option two is a definite 'must do' for all family court lawyers.