About us
The language of the law has a reputation for being difficult to understand. Technical terms, acronyms and abbreviations can make it hard to follow. Lawyers and other professionals study the law so that they can navigate and understand this language and provide services within the justice system. But the system is not there to serve lawyers. More than ever, the language of law needs to be understood by those who need to engage with it. This is so important when it comes to family law as the implications of misuse of language can translate into genuine suffering for children and families. We also need to re-think how we practically apply family law. We need to move away from language that promotes conflict and leads to Court proceedings, towards a language that puts the welfare of children first.
The Family Law Language Project has a simple mission: to help make family law easier to understand, less hostile and more accessible for everyone. We intend to do this by improving the understanding and use of language.
The words we use are really important. They can influence so much and make the difference between feeling safe, listened to and in control or scared, forgotten
Through the use of social media and accessible content on our website, we aim to:
Help those who come into contact with family law to better understand the terms that are used;
Identify terms that are often misunderstood, or that have become outdated or offensive;
Identify and inform people about misuse of family law terms in the media;
Identify language that is aggressive or which is not focussed on the welfare of children and suggest alternatives.
We believe that improving the language of family law will help to move away from an adversarial and Court based system to one which has the welfare of children and families at its heart.
We want to engage with and hear from those with firsthand experience of the language of family law. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to share something or if you have a great idea of how to improve the language.
