“For the last four years, London’s family drug and alcohol court has been trying to get drug and alcohol misusing families back on track. It has done so by following a different approach from the traditional, more punitive measures adopted by the mainstream courts. Joshua Rozenberg visits the court to find out how effective its pioneering work has been and what those who use it think of it. He speaks to those involved in the day-to-day work of the court – including the district judge, the principals of the main charity involved in its creation, legal representatives and others with expert knowledge of the problems which the court’s family users must tackle to put their lives back in order – and talks to observers of the court who have reservations about its approach. Law in Action discovers how far this innovative – but expensive – legal model is one which can realistically be emulated elsewhere in the UK when public funds are under such pressure.”
BBC Law in Action, 13th March 2012
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
