F v M [2021] EWFC 4 has received a lot of comments re. the court’s approach to coercive control. What really troubles me, though, is that the trial lasted 10+ days before a High Court Judge: a resource simply unimaginable in most private law cases. 1/9

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2021/4.html

Although the type of behaviour described in F v M is extreme, it is not beyond the boundaries of what is encountered on a very regular basis in the Family Court. Had the CA not reallocated it, it would have been tried in the FC where, perhaps, 3 days might have been offered. 2/9

I am not suggesting, for a moment, that what happened in F v M was an inappropriate use of court time. I agree with Hayden J’s comments that this “particularly insidious type of abuse, may not easily be captured by the more formulaic discipline of a Scott Schedule”. 3/9

However, the reality is that to try these types of cases property takes time which is simply not available to the average litigant. An even more stark example was the Depp liable trial where 13+ days of High Court were allocated to try 14 allegations: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2020/2911.html 4/9

I have seen cases where the court’s investigation has become so superficial due to a lack of time (meaning that no more than 3 or 5 allegations are to be heard) that it is really unclear to me that the truth of what was going on in the relationship has come out. 5/9

Some courts now have a standard practice of only allowing a party to set out, in a Scott Schedule, their “5 best” allegations with a view to reducing them to 3 for trial, if disputed. 6/9

This puts the party in an invidious position: do you plead the 5 most serious; the 5 most likely to be admitted; the 5 most recent; the 5 for which the evidence is strongest; or a mixture of them all? 7/9

I also, for that matter, think it is unfair on respondents who allege a pattern of false allegations: how can one establish that if only a few incidents have been set out? 8/9

Can I offer any practical solutions, now? I’m afraid not: what is really required is decent investment in the court service to allow pressure of resources no longer to deprive parties of justice. 9/9