Achieving Access to Justice for Children and Their Families: Implications for Court-Based Social Work Practice and Policy

Purpose: To explore the barriers and opportunities for achieving access to justice for children and their families.  It was envisioned that results of this study would help to inform the field of the various barriers to access to justice and provide concrete suggestions for improving services.

Background: Over the last decade, reviews of the family court system have been undertaken, all culminating in a clear message that the family court system is in need of full-scale systemic change. Unfortunately, this has yet to be achieved. The average user of today’s family court system can expect a frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive experience when seeking to have their personal matters settled in the courts. Families face a maze of services that are costly, slow to utilize and confusing to understand. Sharp criticism has been drawn in relation to the court’s ability to effectively address the unique needs of vulnerable families, especially those who are marginalized due to economic hardships, intimate partner violence and limited access to services to remedy their legal disputes.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used an electronic survey as the method for data collection. The non-random sampling strategy included a broad and international recruitment procedure to collect views of legal professionals (judges, lawyers, court administrators) and mental health professionals (social workers, mediators, custody evaluators, parent coordinators, etc.). The survey included both questions about the potential barriers of access to justice as well as open-ended responses from participants. A link to the online survey was distributed to professionals via several professional listservs. Completed surveys were exported into the statistical software “SPSS” (Version 24) for analysis. Frequency data as well as bi-variate analyses (chi-square, t-test, ANOVA) were performed. Qualitative data (open-ended questions) were thematically analyzed with connections to the original survey questions.

Results:  A total of 442 participants responded to the survey (68.5% female and 31.5% male), 398 completed responses to all questions (completion rate 90%).  Professional disciplines included: lawyers (25.5%), judges (16.8%), evaluators (16.8%), dispute resolution professionals (12.9%); court administrators (9.2%); mental health professionals, including social workers, (7.6%), and other (e.g., academics, advocates, etc.) (11.3%). Participants reported that, despite the increase in court-based services (44% improved in the past 7 years), there is growing mistrust and confidence in the courts. The financial cost of services was the most rated problem that interferes with achieving access to justice.  Other challenges included insufficient information about the court process, lack of alternatives (other than litigation) for families, fear of intimate partner violence, language barriers, fear of bias by agency or court officials, transportation to services, and a lack of cultural diversity of services.

Conclusions and Implications:  Noteworthy differences were reported between legal and mental health professionals, where the latter most likely viewed access to justice as a legal issue, while the former focused on alternative approaches outside of the legal system to achieve access. With effective interdisciplinary dialogue, various perspectives may work in concert rather than compete for the limited resources available to assist families involved in family law matters.