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18 J. Soc. Welfare & Fam. L. iii (1996)

handle is hein.journals/jnlosclwl18 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 18(1) 1996: iii-v Editorial After many years of, at times, acrimonious debate, the people of Ireland have voted by the narrowest of margins to end the constitutional ban on divorce. In view of the considerable weight of conservative opposition to this move, the debate yet to come about the future of marriage and divorce in Ireland may well reflect aspects of the recent furore surrounding the Family Homes and Domestic Violence Bill and the proposed reform of the law relating to divorce in England and Wales, which provided a salutary illustration of the woeful ignorance of both the tabloid press and, perhaps more worryingly and less forgivably, some Members of Parliament. The uninformed posturing, shallow rhetoric and ill-informed criticism, both of the proposals and of some of the well-respected individuals behind them, has given a foretaste of what is, in all probability, to come as the revised and combined proposals run the gauntlet of the legislative process. Although changes have been made in the Bill to the proposals contained in the divorce White Paper in response to some criticisms, in particular those from solicitors, the Lord Chancellor has shown remarkable determination and resilience in being able to introduce legislation in the face of such opposition and, in some respects, it might be argued that the new juxtaposition of measures to reform divorce and to protect the victims of domestic violence in a single Family Law Bill is an overdue development which symbolically acknowledges the context in which much domestic violence occurs. With such issues in mind, the results of a survey undertaken by the National Consumer Council and the BBC's Law in Action programme ('Seeking civil justice: a survey of people's needs and experiences', NCC, November 1995), which is intended to inform both Lord Woolf's review of civil justice and the Lord Chancellor's legal aid reforms, are of particular interest. In a survey of over 1,000 adults who had experienced civil disputes in the last three years. 'An overwhelming proportion of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the legal system' (NCC, 1995: 8). Three quarters of the sample would have preferred to resolve their disputes by some form of alternative dispute resolution and over half chose mediation, whilst six out of ten who had been involved in accident or injury cases and divorce cases would have preferred mediation (NCC, 1995: 11). It is also salutary to note that of those who said they would not prefer a full trial, over half did not want either side to have lawyers and although in divorce cases 45 per cent thought both sides should have lawyers, nearly as many (39 per cent) thought that neither side should have lawyers (NCC, 1995: Table 47). Such findings raise important and interesting issues about the public perception of and value attached to lawyers and courts in civil proceedings which merit careful consideration, not least by those opposing change. Also in the context of the Family Law Bill, it is interesting to note that the Home Office has just issued new guidelines (Treating Victims of Crime, Home Office, 1995) for treating victims of crime which include guidance to 0 1996 Routledge 0141-8033

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