Panel suggests more upstream moves to help ease divorce pain
Review committee also recommends early intervention to help reduce acrimony
Conducting mediation before couples file for divorce, giving parents more personalised data during the pre-filing period and upskilling lawyers and judges will help ease the difficult divorce journey, especially the impact on children.
These are some areas suggested by the Committee to Review and Enhance Reforms in the Family Justice System (RERF Committee) to further strengthen the family justice system.
In sharing these ideas yesterday, Minister for Social and Family Development Desmond Lee said the RERF Committee, formed earlier this year and comprising representatives from the Family Justice Court, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), was meant to build on the work of the 2014 Committee for Family Justice.
The 2014 Committee recommendations led to the inception of the Family Justice Courts, its Counselling and Psychological Services arm and the four Divorce Support Specialist Agencies (DSSAs) set up by the MSF, among other things.
"These efforts have had some impact. Within and outside the courts, and across all stages - from pre-filing, to the divorce proceedings, and post-divorce - more families are better supported than before," he said in his keynote address at the Family Justice Practice Forum 2018.
The minister cited upbeat figures that backed the collective efforts made by the DSSAs and others in the past few years.
He pointed out that divorce cases filed under the simplified track with no contested issues soared to 53 per cent for the first half of this year compared to 24 per cent in 2015.
Also, less than 5 per cent of concluded divorce cases last year required a final adjudication, either on divorce grounds or on ancillary matters, down from 7 per cent in 2016.
Mr Lee underscored the critical role of the family justice system.
He warned that while divorce rates had remained stable over the last six years and were lower than places such as Taiwan or the US, "we cannot take this for granted, as we have also observed that the proportion of divorces in Singapore for recent marriage cohorts has been on the rise, compared to older cohorts".
The RERF Committee recommended more upstream interventions, such as pre-filing mediation and counselling, to help reduce acrimony. For instance, parents can be given useful and personalised information on housing and finances during the pre-filing period.
SUPPORT
Mr Lee noted the RERF Committee considered how to better determine the kind of support families need as families differ on many fronts.
"One possible way is to put in place a 'triaging' process, to decide upfront what kinds of social services each divorcing family may require."
But changes in hardware such as systems are not enough and have to be supplemented by the "heartware" of "how we think and do things", he said.
To this end, he said lawyers play a potentially key "first responder" role to families in dispute while the courts could also be further equipped to ensure that family disputes are resolved in a more therapeutic and restorative manner.
MSF and the Law Ministry will be engaging more stakeholders and the public in the coming months when the RERF Committee has submitted its recommendations.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now