Will zoom and virtual meetings become the norm between lawyers and their clients? 

 

This is a question that has been asked many times since virtual meetings became the new way to communicate with clients when the pandemic set in. 

 

Figures show that 71% of clients were comfortable with virtual meetings such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. With this in mind, the figure for clients thinking about using law firms from across the country has increased from 46% in 2019 to 59% in 2021. 

 

This has given law firms who would usually see client’s face to face, a new avenue to explore with the potential for offering a service to clients across the country. This also gives the client the ability to choose a law firm who may suit them better instead of choosing a legal firm solely on their proximity to their home or work. 

 

As technology and the way we communicate progresses, law firms will need to evolve with new technology, to offer the best service to their clients. 

A judge who has explored the reasons behind a chronic shortage of medical experts in the family justice system hopes the days when an expert witness had to attend court in person could now be over. 

 

A working group led by Mr Justice David Williams found that many health professionals they interviewed were concerned as to how they could manage a busy NHS practice with the perceived inflexibilities of the court system. The group suggested that remote court attendance should become the norm unless personal attendance was necessary. 

For a long time, Family law has been very adult centric and has not focused on the child, with this comes tension between parents, which, in turn, affects the child’s mental health. 

 

In the early 1980’s Resolution began with the aim to change the way family law works, offering a more amicable solution for clients, resulting in children having a more positive outlook on the situation. Resolution has focused on specialist training and interdisciplinary working for family lawyers and has produced a wealth of amicable client focused lawyers. 

 

Resolution have also been backing the ‘no fault divorce campaign’, with the idea that it will bring less tension and conflict within a separation, thus providing better outcomes to the children of the relationship. Resolution have been successful with this campaign and the no fault divorce will be implemented at the end of 2021. 

 

In 2020 alone, there were almost 56,000 children applications made affecting roughly 100,000 children, some of these cases took up to 39 weeks to conclude giving an average of 11 weeks longer than the previous year. 

Over the years there has been many charities and campaigns who have tackled this conflict affecting children of separated parents. One of these is the Positive Parenting Alliance, its aim is to “start a wider conversation in society about separation with the hopes that, over time, there will be a change in culture and a reframing so that children’s needs come first when a relationship ends”. 

 

Hopefully, we will see a decrease in children affected by the conflict of separation with the help of the Positive Parenting Alliance campaign and Resolutions continued efforts to set out standards for lawyers to have a more amicable, child focused outlook.