Statement ref Closure of Old Townhall Court Building.

Mens Aid NI wishes to make known our position on the proposed closure of Old Townhall Court
Building. This building houses the lower tier Family Court, and also Youth Court and Coroners Court.
On any given day, the Family Court area would be cramped and very limited time being given to cases.
These cases decide the future of children seeing their absent parent, whether their mother or father, or
not seeing them. Not enough time is allocated per case at present, and most cases are resolved by
coercing from solicitors, with many parents not even entering the Court room. Other cases are
persistently put back and it can take up to, and longer than, 18 months to come to a resolve.
This is detrimental to our children, and also detrimental to the defendant parent and their families.
To date, we have submitted proposals to David Ford, And Simon Hamilton of DFP ( |DFP holds remit of
Family Law ) whereby vast savings could be made by way of legislating an amendment to include a
presumption of contact after separation, as long as no reason to the contrary. Our proposals are same
proposals which GB Party Leaders signed off on several times, but were not implemented due to
Ministry of Justice in GB being deceived ( see Early Interventions at www.cyriax.co.uk ).
Current NI Legal Aid for Family Law is around 30 million pound or more. By implementing our proposed
changes, millions could be saved.
Instead, it has been left to NICTS to find savings, at the cost of what is in the childs best interests. They
are closing Old Townhall Court and moving Lower Family Court to Laganside, where the Family Care
Centre sits. With 8403 Non Molestation Order/Occupation Orders going through Old Townhall from
01/01/13 to 01/08/14 ( document attached ), plus the thousands of Family Contact Cases going
through, we feel this is a disastrous move by NICTS and effectively cash before kids being in the
forefront here.
We intend to raise this with NICTS and seek intervention by Justice Minister David Ford. We wil also
participate in sit down protests inside the court to put our view across, as we have done previously.
We will have childrens cases within an adult criminal court, we will have people applying for orders for
safety whilst perpetrators possibly in same court being tried, we will have people attending Family Court
Appearances amongst sex offenders on the levels of Laganside Court. Many parents have to attend with
their children, and children can also sometimes be allowed an audience in the Family Courts, thus mixing
children with adult criminals in the one building.
Our point is simple: initiate the proposals we presented to save millions, leave Old Townhall as it is for
the sake of our children and their future. |Delays will be common, parents will suffer alienation due to
length of time to conclude cases.

Peter Morris
Mens Aid NI
www.mensaid.co.uk
07715456147