Reform urged as family law system 'failing very people it is meant to protect'

Throughout her career, barrister Lisa Ann Wilkinson has worked predominantly with women who have left coercive, controlling, and abusive relationships. File picture

A barrister who witnessed domestic violence growing up has launched a campaign calling for urgent reform of Ireland’s family law system, warning it is “failing the very people it is meant to protect”.

The Right to Transparency campaign, co-founded by Lisa Ann Wilkinson and Síle Ní Dhubhghaill, is seeking targeted changes, including the removal of the in-camera rule while maintaining anonymity for those involved.

Ms Wilkinson, a family law barrister who is also a “survivor from childhood”, co-chairs SiSi, a collective of women survivors of intimate partner abuse.

“Between the ages of 12 and 17, I experienced watching domestic violence,” she told the Irish Examiner.

“The thing that makes it very difficult for me is when I'm dealing with clients who have children who are being forced into access with abusive perpetrators, I find it really difficult to understand why a court would force a child to do that because of my own personal experience.” 

While Ms Wilkinson said it can be triggering, those situations make her “more adamant that something has to be done”.

“It is difficult seeing women's abuse being minimalised in court, them being cross-examined, people saying that they weren't telling the truth and that they were alienating their children, and their assessors using this pseudoscience of alienating behaviours,” she said.

Throughout her career, the barrister has worked predominantly with women who have left coercive, controlling, and abusive relationships.

“What they find is once they've left the relationship that the abuse doesn't stop, it actually changes gear and tactic.

“The abuse escalates. It starts with stalking, intimidation, harassment and often, women get protection orders and safety orders, and they're breached,” she said.

She added because of the violent nature of those relationships, some women had to flee their family homes and seek refuge.

The perpetrator might be sitting pretty in the house while the mother and children are in the refuge somewhere, pretty much homeless.

One of the points the campaign aims to highlight is the lack of judicial and professional training in coercive control.

“When women go and report coercive control, especially in rural areas, the guards are not trained, and they just dismiss these allegations.

“I think the statistics are really stark. Since 2019, when the coercive control legislation became a criminal offence, out of 60,000 complaints of coercive control, there's only been two standalone convictions for coercive control, which is absolutely shocking.” 

According to Ms Wilkinson, women leaving coercive relationships are “incredibly fragile” and their confidence has been “eroded”.

“They don't understand the level of abuse they've endured, and they can't articulate it," she said. 

"The guards don't do thorough investigations, they don't talk to family and friends, they don't collect evidence, and they tend not to look at the full pattern of the abuse. It gets dismissed by the DPP consistently, so it doesn't get prosecuted.

“And unfortunately, if it doesn't get prosecuted, and it's been reported to the gardaí, the perpetrator will then use that in their court proceedings.”

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