UK: Family courts: women and children first

Article here. Excerpt:

'For years family lawyers have known it to be true: men get a raw deal when they divorce in this country. And by this country, I mean England and Wales rather than the UK as a whole. Scotland has a very different approach to money in divorce and women rarely get the joint lives order (aka ‘meal ticket for life’) that we still see here.

And the prejudice against men is not confined to finance. More important, perhaps, is the way in which there is still no level playing field when it comes to deciding whether children should have their primary homes with their mothers or fathers.

‘There is no evidence of bias in the courts in favour of one parent,’ according to Baroness Butler-Sloss, ex-president of the Family Division, speaking during the committee stage of the Children and Families Bill in October. And apparently, the NSPCC, the Justice Select Committee and the children’s minister all agree with her. Who knew? Certainly none of my family lawyer colleagues. Where are these courts? Not in this jurisdiction. Maybe the baroness and her friends were muddling us up with, say, France or Sweden, where the field is considerably more level.
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I base this observation on years of dealing with the family courts, almost exclusively in London, and witnessing countless examples of courts treating women and men in entirely different ways. I have acted for several fathers, for example, who have unarguably been the primary carers of their children but have seen their contribution undervalued almost as a matter of course, with the court deciding the children should live with their mothers after divorce. And when it comes to spending time with their children, the message is clear: women and children first.'