Vulnerable Witnesses within Family and Criminal Proceedings : Protections, Safeguards and Sanctions
Author(s): Frank Feehan QC, Caroline Harris
Are you prepared to protect the vulnerable in court? A guide to the rights of witnesses and the duties of advocates in family and criminal proceedings.
Explaining the legal structure currently in place to assist vulnerable individuals, this brand new title covers every stage of proceedings, including the investigation/pre-proceeding, and postproceedings, whilst also looking at anonymity and protective orders. In addition, it discusses the sanctions available to the court if proper consideration and sufficient protection has not been given to vulnerable people at each stage. Covering legislation, regulation and authorities which govern these situations, it offers best practice regarding the examination of those who have difficulty understanding their case, by reason of age, circumstance or emotional and psychological difficulties.
Practical help is provided through:
Step-by-step guidance at each stage
Helpful suggestions as to how to approach the hearing at each stage of proceedings
Links to the useful guidance regularly referred to within proceedings including the Advocates Gateway
Review(s):
“…family practitioners will benefit from understanding how the police operate to investigate and gather evidence –particularly in the context of interviewing children, who make up a very obvious category of vulnerable witness…It's a compact text that appears to do an efficient job of distilling a lot of information into digestible paragraphs and setting out the distinctions between the criminal and family spheres in a useful exercise in comparing and contrasting… so anything that can help to bridge that gap of understanding is welcome… This handbook will be of great assistance to those starting out who need an accessible introduction to this field as well as the more elderly practitioners for whom the legal landscape has changed considerably in the last ten years.” —ICLR
ISBN: 9781526507235