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Opening closed doors: a micro analytic investigation of dispute resolution in child contact cases

  • Start date: 01 January 2008
  • End date: 31 December 2008

The family courts face intense criticism about decisions made about child contact (or access) following parental separation or divorce. Both father's rights groups and Women's Aid have raised concerns about institutional bias, ineffectiveness and a lack of transparency. However, the inherently closed nature of decision-making in the family courts has prevented greater understanding of how decisions are reached.

This study addresses this gap by undertaking a detailed analysis of in-court conciliation meetings where parents negotiate over contact with the assistance of a judge or court social worker.

The research uses conversation analysis to explore precisely how the actual, real-time work of family courts is undertaken in and through the communicative processes of spoken interaction.

The study will explore, for example, the interactional processes by which agreements are achieved, negotiated and/or impeded, and how the rights and needs of children and parents are discursively framed by conciliators and disputants.

The study has three aims:

  • to advance theoretical and empirical understanding of decision making within the family courts,
  • to enhance transparency, inform policy and identify specific areas of professional practices and competences that may be improved, and
  • to demonstrate the benefits of the conversation analysis method for socio-legal research.
  • Outputs (10)

Grant holder

Professor Elizabeth Trinder

Programme name

None

Co - applicants

Dr Christopher Jenks

Dr Alan Firth

Grant amount

£78,428.29

Grant reference

RES-000-22-2646

Institution

Newcastle University

Discipline

Socio Legal Studies

Socio-Legal Studies

Grant type

Research Grant