Dr. Carol Coulter:

This does not really arise in child protection proceedings. Domestic violence certainly arises in child protection proceedings, as does child abuse sometimes. However, what is involved then is that the State intervenes in a family to limit or remove constitutional rights from family members. That is a totally different type of proceeding than private family law proceedings. As I said earlier, it is not appropriate to use mediation there. There is a second layer of issues that then arise in childcare proceedings where both parents may want to have access with their children and may have views about the children's education, health and so on. Certainly, mediation is very important there. Again, the domestic violence issue is unlikely to be one of the issues that features in that layer of consideration. It is not always appropriate to ask a judge to decide whether a child goes to this school or that school when there could be a mediated discussion around it. Equally, the issue of whether the Child and Family Agency allows access on a Wednesday or a Thursday is very suitable for mediation. A domestic violence issue will probably have featured in the order made on the care of the child by the court.