The criminal and family courts have made strides in support for vulnerable parties – are the civil courts finally about to catch up? Rachel Rothwell reports

"How the courts treat those who are exposed and weak is a barometer of our moral worth as a society.”

Those wise words were spoken by Lord Justice Green in December 2015. He also noted that “many of those we encounter in the criminal and family courts are from troubled backgrounds and have suffered a lifetime of disadvantage, prejudice and abuse”.

But while strides have been made to make specific provision for vulnerable people in the criminal and, more recently, the family courts, the civil courts lag worryingly behind.

This poor state of affairs was picked up on by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) which, in April 2018, recommended a change to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR...

Rachel Rothwell
Freelance Journalist

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