What is your position and what you do on a day-to-day basis?
Designated
Family Judge. Sit in the Family Court and deal with large amounts of
administrative work.
How long have you been in this role and what brought you
here?
For 2 ½
years. Before that I was sitting in
What are the people you work for/with like? Any memorable
stories?
Great.
Better not tell any stories, though.
What is the best and worst part of the day for you?
The
worst time of the day is when I settle down to work in the evenings. The best
time is when I finally leave my desk (usually well after 10 pm).
What adjectives best describe you?
Industrious.
What keeps you motivated?
The
recognition that there is nothing more invasive for children and litigants than
having their private lives determined by another individual.
Tea or coffee?
Both.
What would you say to anyone thinking of a career in your field?
Be
prepared for very long hours.
What song do you listen to the most?
‘Common People’ by Pulp and 'Living in the love of the common people' by Paul Young.
How do you enjoy
your time outside of work?
Being with my
family.
If you could change one thing about the
family justice system what would it be and why?
Introduce early therapeutic intervention
for parents who are involved with CYPS in the pre-proceedings stage.
HHJ Judge Stephen
Wildblood QC, who will speak at this year’s
Family Law Conference, has
written about a range of Bristol-based pro bono initiatives in November [2014] Fam Law 1597.
Family Law will publish an update to
this article in the November issue.
See also the
FREE Family law session in Bristol on 1 October – a 'class' aimed at the public to help them find out how the Family Court works.
As part of this feature we are asking a wide range of people who have links to the court system and family law to respond to the above questions and give us some information about what their role entails. We hope to get a wide cross section of people - to this end, if you would like to contribute please email editor@familylaw.co.uk.
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