- Title
- Independent children's lawyers: relational approaches to children's representation
- Creator
- Ross, Nicola
- Relation
- Australian Journal of Family Law Vol. 26, Issue 3, p. 214-239
- Relation
- http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/sites/en-au/products/australian-journal-of-family-law.page
- Publisher
- LexisNexis Butterworths
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- This article focuses on the complex role of the Independent Children’s Lawyer (ICL) in family law proceedings in relation to contact with children. ICLs are best interests representatives, with responsibility to bring evidence relevant to a child’s best interests before the court and to broker a resolution of disputes. They are not bound by children’s instructions, but are expected to meet with children and play a key role in ensuring children’s views are heard by the court. Given ICLs’ critical role, there is surprisingly little evidence about how they perform these roles or relate to children in practice; in addition, there is evidence that children do not always feel they have been heard, even when they have an ICL. The article presents findings from qualitative research which highlight (i) differences in reported approaches of ICLs related to their ethical orientations as ‘relational lawyer’ and/or ‘responsible lawyers’; (ii) obstacles to ICLs forming professional relationships with children; and (iii) the need to review the preparation, training and selection of ICLs to support their work with children. The research concludes that there are important differences in ICLs’ approach to this work that affect their receptivity to work with children.
- Subject
- children; lawyers; relational; family law; Australia
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1057446
- Identifier
- uon:16190
- Identifier
- ISSN:0817-623X
- Language
- eng
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