SINGAPORE – Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the variety of divorces in Singapore elevated by 2 per cent from 2020 to 2021, whereas the variety of upkeep and household violence instances dropped in the identical interval.
This comes on the again of an total enhance of 4 per cent within the Family Justice Courts’ (FJC) caseload final yr.
Presiding Judge Debbie Ong introduced these figures in her speech on the FJC’s Workplan 2022 seminar on Friday (March 18), the place she laid out plans to make courtroom providers simply accessible for the general public.
Even although divorces have gone up, the variety of amicable splits has additionally elevated, with the share of divorces on the simplified monitor – that’s, uncontested divorces – going up from 60 per cent in 2020 to 63 per cent final yr.
Despite final yr’s rise, the variety of divorces in 2021 was decrease than in 2019, earlier than the coronavirus outbreak.
The FJC’s larger caseload was largely attributable to an increase in probate instances, which concern the execution of wills.
In her speech, Justice Ong introduced three thrusts that the FJC will undertake this yr.
She stated: “Over the past few years, we have worked hard to brainstorm on how to help families move forward. I talked a lot about the importance of adopting the “lens” of therapeutic justice and we introduced some broad plans beneath this overarching imaginative and prescient. To be of actual help, our aspirations should be realised in sensible phrases.”
Under therapeutic justice, the regulation is seen as a social power that may produce useful or dangerous penalties, and encourages practitioners to think about emotional, social and psychological facets of the regulation.
First, she outlined the FJC’s plans to additional therapeutic justice such that judges, mediators and counsellors can work collectively to handle instances sooner and extra holistically.
Justice Ong additionally stated the FJC will proceed to strengthen the combination of neighborhood providers and referral channels to match the wants of households with specialised help providers.
Second, she stated the FJC will facilitate higher entry to justice by reviewing present ache factors and leveraging know-how to make the courtroom journey smoother for courtroom customers.
“These enhancements improve access to justice in two ways: first, by making the court process simpler and friendlier for court users; and second, by equipping court users with sufficient knowledge to make informed decisions and pursue their legal rights,” she stated.
One key side of this was the launch of the Divorce e-Service in November final yr. The portal reduces effort and time in form-filling by utilizing the events’ private particulars from MyInfo, the Government’s one-stop knowledge platform. It additionally guides courtroom customers who usually are not represented by a lawyer by changing their particulars into auto-generated courtroom varieties, in the event that they file for divorce on the simplified monitor.
In a bid to make courtroom providers simpler to entry, Justice Ong stated the FJC will work on a pilot challenge with the Public Service Centre @ Our Tampines Hub to permit events to file upkeep enforcement functions from places within the heartland. From mid-May 2022, litigants will be capable of file such functions on the centre.
Justice Ong stated that the FJC may even be introducing a brand new simplified submitting and show-cause process within the Family Justice Rules for breaches of such orders.
“This will complement the recent amendments to the Women’s Charter in January early this year, which provide for broader powers for the court to order make-up access, impose fines, forfeit bonds and order imprisonment against a recalcitrant parent,” she stated.
Lastly, she stated the FJC will proceed to boost the capabilities and capability of household observe in Singapore by establishing a judicial coaching committee to place collectively a curriculum for brand spanking new household judges to obtain specialist coaching.
In her speech, Justice Ong famous that adversarial and aggressive practices that undermine therapeutic justice on the FJC can have penalties.
The courtroom might order that prices – a time period that refers to bills similar to lawyer’s charges and administrative charges – be borne by events who take up adversarial stances the place events compete with one another for his or her finest curiosity.
The post Divorces in S’pore rise by 2% in 2021; maintenance, family violence cases fall first appeared on Umorr.
