Anybody who has children and has been involved in the family law proceedings will be familiar with reports prepared under section 47 of the Family Law Act, 1995. These reports are generally prepared by expert child psychologists and courts will feel themselves, if not bound by the findings in these reports, then they would regard them as extremely persuasive.
One of the problems with the reports is that solicitors are told that they can discuss the contents of the report with the client but they cannot give the report itself to the client. This creates huge difficulties because if I have a client and I am telling them that the recommendation is that they are to lose custody of their children and I can talk about the reasons but I cannot show them the report, invariably this will result in an exceptionally unhappy client. It can be particularly difficult where the report only becomes available within a few days of a hearing and there is no time to take full instructions or to raise any matters that might need to be raised with the child psychologist.
Section 47(3) of the 1995 Act says “a copy of a report under subsection (1) shall be given to the parties to the proceedings concerned and (if he or she is not a party to the proceedings) to the person to whom it relates and may be received in evidence in the proceedings”.
A practice has developed in the Circuit Court whereby the solicitors for the parties can make an application to the judge to obtain a copy of the report and we then have the strange situation whereby the solicitor knows what is in the report but the client (who paid many thousands for the report) does not and cannot be given a copy of the report.
If a client has a solicitor who is not particularly familiar with family law practice and procedure, the solicitor might not even get this report until the morning of the hearing itself.
Given the critical importance of these section 47 reports, this is clearly exceptionally unsatisfactory. It would appear that the reasoning behind this is all part of the secrecy that pervades the entire family law process. Clients cannot be given copies of their own section 47 reports in case they hand over copies to journalists or other parties. This makes no sense. If a copy of the section 47 report is made available to an applicant and the applicant is told that they must not provide copies to any third parties then the court has a remedy if that order is broken. The Circuit and High Court hear cases on the basis that they wish to do whatever is in the best interest of the children and surely it is in the best interests of the children that comprehensive section 47 reports are made available to all parties well in advance of the hearing so that they can consider all issues arising – in the best interest of the children.
Kevin Brophy
One of the problems with the reports is that solicitors are told that they can discuss the contents of the report with the client but they cannot give the report itself to the client. This creates huge difficulties because if I have a client and I am telling them that the recommendation is that they are to lose custody of their children and I can talk about the reasons but I cannot show them the report, invariably this will result in an exceptionally unhappy client. It can be particularly difficult where the report only becomes available within a few days of a hearing and there is no time to take full instructions or to raise any matters that might need to be raised with the child psychologist.
Section 47(3) of the 1995 Act says “a copy of a report under subsection (1) shall be given to the parties to the proceedings concerned and (if he or she is not a party to the proceedings) to the person to whom it relates and may be received in evidence in the proceedings”.
A practice has developed in the Circuit Court whereby the solicitors for the parties can make an application to the judge to obtain a copy of the report and we then have the strange situation whereby the solicitor knows what is in the report but the client (who paid many thousands for the report) does not and cannot be given a copy of the report.
If a client has a solicitor who is not particularly familiar with family law practice and procedure, the solicitor might not even get this report until the morning of the hearing itself.
Given the critical importance of these section 47 reports, this is clearly exceptionally unsatisfactory. It would appear that the reasoning behind this is all part of the secrecy that pervades the entire family law process. Clients cannot be given copies of their own section 47 reports in case they hand over copies to journalists or other parties. This makes no sense. If a copy of the section 47 report is made available to an applicant and the applicant is told that they must not provide copies to any third parties then the court has a remedy if that order is broken. The Circuit and High Court hear cases on the basis that they wish to do whatever is in the best interest of the children and surely it is in the best interests of the children that comprehensive section 47 reports are made available to all parties well in advance of the hearing so that they can consider all issues arising – in the best interest of the children.
Kevin Brophy
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