When it comes to child custody, is the system failing families?

Guardian readers respond to Lara Feigel’s powerful account of divorce and the family court

Lara Feigel highlights the impact of “win/lose” adjudication in the adversarial court system, a system tailor-made to produce the worst possible outcomes for separating families (I was warned my children would be ripped in half when we divorced. But I had no idea just how brutal custody cases can be, 18 January). In heightening conflict between parents, this system destroys the potential of a negotiated co-parental agreement determined by parents themselves. The best laws are those which limit judicial discretion, including in family law, where children are caught squarely in the middle of the conflict.

There is a viable alternative to the dominant litigation model for couples in conflict: a legal presumption of equal parenting, rebuttable in family violence cases, a model that reduces the harms of adversarial resolution. Shared parenting maintains children’s relationships with each parent and their extended family, reduces inter-parental conflict, and prevents first-time violence. What is missing, however, is the political will to enact legislative reform based on reliable scientific evidence on the benefits of shared parenting and a child-focused and collaborative approach. Despite family courts’ invocation of the “best interests of the child”, meaningful law reform remains elusive in the UK and beyond.