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Government makes more than £100 million in profit from the court system

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Family Court Fees to Rise

March 28, 2024

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Family Court Fees to Rise

March 28, 2024

The amount of money generated by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) exceeded the amount spent on the system by just under £102 million new figures reveal.

According to the newly published HMCTS annual report, the government brought in a huge £788 million in fees across civil courts in the last financial year: £186 million from the family courts and no less than £602 million from the other civil courts. But only around £686 million was spent on running the system.

Tribunals – panel courts which hear regulatory and financial disputes – proved to be the least profitable sector, generating an overall loss of £162 million.

Meanwhile, the number of full-time court staff fell over the year, to 15,749, a drop of close to six per cent.

The also highlights technical advances, including the introduction of online pleas, the steady roll-out of courtroom wifi, and the piloting of online divorce applications.

Susan Acland-Hood is chief executive of HMCTS. She said:

“As more of our products are services are successfully transformed, the difference between what has been previously considered “reform” and what is considered “business as usual” will become less distinct.”

The blog team at Stowe is a group of writers based across our family law offices who share their advice on the wellbeing and emotional aspects of divorce or separation from personal experience. As well as pieces from our family law solicitors, guest contributors also regularly contribute to share their knowledge.

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Comments(35)

  1. Mr T says:

    This is why the judiciary doesn’t care about alienation or giving out non-molestation orders like smarties

  2. Paul says:

    This really does reinforce what we have been saying about this system been corrupt. Why would the government reform a system which is bringing in £100 million plus profit. How much of this came directly from the family law sector ? – so I have not been screwed over by a court system. I have been shafted by a business plan. State tyrany anyone ? Add to this the personal profits made by soliciters. This is a sickening situation. What has this got to do with justice ?

  3. Paul says:

    System clearly needs legal aid (soliciters benefits) re-enstated. LOL

  4. dr. manhattan62 says:

    Maybe this is why they have not tackled widespread corruption in the family courts.
    they are making a nice little earner from the destruction of families all over the country. Rotten to the Core i think they call it.

    • SC says:

      This is more proof in what people have been saying for donkeys years. An you hit the nail on the head as always dr. There not going to bite the hand that feeds them. We found more evidence mind where the solicitor was cooraspnding in the local authorities. They knew every move before we made it, also took 7k and we found he claimed legal aid. No wonder we can’t find him, maybe developing a concions I dunno. But I wasn’t hiding it. Nobody stands a chance weather in alienating a parent and especially the local authorities who were trying to fight. The system is rigged to hell and as said curruption to the core

  5. Yvie says:

    Something similar with the CMS. They are supposed to promote a family friendly agreement, but there is no money to be had from this. Hence they can impose a DEO at the drop of a hat, which generates 20% of the amount for the government. This is State bullying.

    • Paul says:

      Your 100% right Yvie. Its state bullying and exhortion racket. I have offered to pay child support by standing order twice now. Once through CAB and once again through my MP. I said I am happy and willing to pay just give me an accurate calculation and the bank details I need to set up the bank transfer. They have point blank ignored me an procceded straight to DOE without giving me a chance to pay.
      My wage for working 20 hours a week was £600:00 a month. My rent is £435:00.
      They help themselves to £250. Do the maths yourself an ask yourself what am I expected to eat ?
      Fortunatly I have just come into a situation where I can now go self employed. So if they want anything now they can see me in court.
      They have had wage slips which I sent to them twice. They know my income and they deliberatly chose to make sure I coulds not afford to eat.
      I cant negociate with my expartner because of a ‘false’ harassment allegation. So i have had no way to negociate a reasonable settlement with my expartner.
      The new scheme is designed to help people work it out between themselves. But if my ex does not co-opperate the CMS enforcers have the ability to help themselves to 20%+ from my income anyway.
      So why would she bother negociating or reaching a fair settlement when the CMS can simply hammer you anyway ? – she has no reason to be ammicable at all. Whoever dreamt this up is an idiot…
      (*Comment edited by the moderators)

  6. Yvie says:

    Unfortunately Government has failed to recognise that those fathers on low incomes cannot do all that is expected of them on a single income. The majority of dads want to contribute to the maintenance of their children but find it impossible to pay the required percentage, let alone an additional 20% on top of it. There is no incentive for parents to work out a reasonable amount between themselves given the present system.

    • Paul says:

      ‘Unfortunate’ has nothing to do with it. Its by design. They know we can’t pay. An 8 year old can do the maths. They just don’t care because we are a minority group (approx 4 million) who are fragmented. Not unified so we can do nothing about it. They undermind fathers for justice. The rest is history. This has been going on for decades. They are extracting money they are not in the slightest bit concerned by the consiquences.
      They have the moral high ground of you must pay for your kids. If you raise any complaint about the way they go about it then your just avoiding paying.
      Its a no win scenario and they know it. They don’t care how many fathers jump in front of the train. They have demonstrated that repeatedly. No MP will touch it. An nobody can be held directly responsible for the deaths. Its a disgrace. I can see no end to it.

  7. Paul says:

    What is the 20% over and above child support that is mentioned in these comments?

    • Paul says:

      Taxation. 17.5% more accurately. Over all you are left to live with a minimum of 37.5% deducted from your wage.

    • Yvie says:

      The extra 20% occurs is when the paying parent misses payments and the CMS has to take payment via a DEO. Its takes an extra 20% on top of the amount detected for the child maintenance. That extra amount goes straight to the government.

      • Paul says:

        Oh yeah that old chest nut. Despite the fact a DEO is their prefered way of collection. The cheapest most effective way of collecting they wana charge you 20% for doing it that way.
        This world is sick where you have no right to your own wages.

        • Yvie says:

          I am also coming to the opinion that if a government body feels it has the right to remove an amount of child maintenance decided by the from a father’s wages, it should first have to be certain of the parentage of the child. A DNA test should therefore be mandatory if they wish to issue a DEO.

          • Paul says:

            DNA test should be compulsary part of the process. Both partys pay their share. If one party is falsely accused then they should be reinburst. Its not difficult to work out how to do this system fairly. What we need to understand is why they would choose to muddy the waters and have an arbitary system. Its purely to keep a steady stream of work for judges and legals. (Yet they moan about their work load) If a science lab was making these decissions efficiently and accurately then that would take the legal sector out of the whole proccess.

  8. Charley says:

    The family courts in regards to adoption without consent:

    1) Children can be adopted without consent when they have been neither abused nor neglected, but rather a vague prophecy of ‘risk of future emotional harm’ has been predicted.

    2) No jury is allowed and the proceedings are held in confidence (more accurately – held in secret), I couldn’t bring my own Mother in there if I wanted to.

    3) Parents can be subjected to repeat psychological assessments, if one of three psych assessments is negative, the negative one will be the one given the most weight.

    4) Expert witnesses are used, often these witnesses have no other source of income than that which they gain through working for the LA – opinions for hire.

    5) Parents are being gagged, and even imprisoned, yet again in secret for telling their stories.

    6) Children statistically are taken from lower income families, and adopted into families with a higher income – middle class families.

    Now if this was North Korea, or Iran even, we would not be calling this child protection. We would be calling it what it is – legally sanctioned child abduction. Give it another decade or so, when the post baby-p snatchlings find out why they were taken……… there may be trouble ahead.

    Last point, in regards to the shockingly high amount of profit the courts are making. I thought there was no money to give counselling etc to the child or the child’s natural family to enable them to deal with having been subject to the baby snatch treatment? Where exactly is all this profit going to?

  9. Paul says:

    My letter to my local police and crime commissioner
    I hope you all do the same with your own personal account. I also forward it to my MP

    Dear Police and Crime Commissioner,

    Thank you for your reply. I appologise but it is not a small matter with which I write. There is no easy answer.

     The police are using enforcement measures which are bypassing a persons pressumption of innocence and I beleive this is leading to wide spread injustice and is leading to the false criminalisation of men up all the way up the country. I have read hundreds of accounts of this online. It needs to stop immediatly.

     My expartner took action against me to stop contact with my children for no reason at all.

     When I went round to try to reason with her and to see my children I was issued with a HIN.

     Harassment Information Notice.

     Disturbingly this notice was riddled with lies distortions and hersey from my ex-partner. Which the police had written down as a factual account. 

     There is no way to appeal or revolke these notices. They seriously ristrict your civil liberties with out any trial or hearing. 

     So the police enforced Lies and Heresy from my expartner and there was no way to appeal this.

     Feel free to look at my record. I had a 100% clean criminal record until my expartner realised she could miss use the law for her own personal gain.

     I have never been violent towards a woman or threatening towards a woman in my life. It is against everything I believe.

     Yet I have still managed to contribute towards your DV statistics.

     This enforcement measure DIRECTLY lead to me losing a job. An has DIRECTLY contributed to me losing contact with my children whom I have not been able to see now for over 3 years.

    More than this they granted my expartner a weapon to use against me to stop me from seeing my children.This is completely contrary to how British justice is supposed to work.

     I 100% oppose the use of these facist measures.

     I am a UK tax payer and contribute to the everyday maintainance of the police service.

    (Worth mentioning that my expartner who you are protecting. From absolutly nothing. Has not worked since my first child was born 14 years ago. Which means she has contribute the square route of nothing to the police service of this country)

     In this country we are supposed to be policed by concent. Which means without the permission or blessing of the people you cannot do so.

     I am writing to ask you to pass on my message to the police crime commissioner that I oppose the use of these FACIST measures against fathers.

     The crusade against Domestic Violence is utterly sexist and has criminalised people on the back of heresy. It is SEXIST. The law is been applied wrongly. It is been miss used and it is damaging. Surely the recent surge in DV related crime 100% supports what I am saying.

     Have we not learned from all the false rape allegations over the years that we cannot trust what a woman is claiming without determining the truth of the situation first. It maybe cheaper for you to bypass the ‘investigation’ stage but I can assure you it is destroying mens lives.

     These ‘Information Notices’ are harmful. They are open to wide spread abuse.

     I 100% oppose the use of the police force been an instriment to seperate families. That is not why I contribute tax money to the police force.

     Its hardly a fitting use of police power when less than 8% of burglarys result in someone been arrested and charged and drug crime is such an epidemic that you have virtually given up on it. The head of the police now supporting its decriminalisation. You have got your priorities whaofully wrong.

     Fatherless families are an epidemic in this country. I 100% oppose the use of the police force to feed the business of family courts.(a business which grossed over £102 million pounds last year) Especially in the sexist way the law is applied.

     This is sexist. As a result of an alledged breach of this HIN I received 100 hours community service. While I was on this commumity service a probation officer turned around to me and stated. I quote:-

     ”The problem with domestic violence is men”

     I was completly bowled over by this statement. It had not occoured to me that I was facing systemic state discrimination until I heard him say that.

     This is the undeniably truth that the police force is actively discriminating against men.

     As long as this sexist crusade continues the police have lost my support. I will 100% oppose any increase to the police budget. I will actively vote to reduce the police budget. I will not speak to any police officer while fathers are been actively diacriminated against.

    The police have 100% lost my confidence and support.

    Regards

    Paul

    Sent from Samsung Mobile

    • Cameron Paterson says:

      Paul – we’ve removed your name, email address and a few additional identifying details. The reason for that is simple: by identifying yourself, you are identifying your ex-partner, and by extension, your children. If other readers wish to contact you directly we can pass on their messages

    • dr. manhattan62 says:

      As much as you spent a lot of time writing that i dont think they will take any notice of it. we all know about the system being Rigged against parents. when the parents are split it brings even more excuses to label parents as incapable.
      it could take decades before all this comes to an end so unfortunately thousands more good people will have to suffer the injustices taking place.

      • Paul says:

        All it requires for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing. That is exactly the outlook which will allow this system to continue long into the future. A cause may seem lost just before it is won.
        I ask you not to stop writing. But to write more. It is a volume of complaints which is hard to ignore not the merrit of the complaint. All they are concerned about is figures. So keep complaining. Copy an resend my complaint with your name on it. In this electronic age it will not even cost you a stamp. I too feel like my words fall on def ears. But one day my children will read them and know that I did not simply roll over and die…
        An Cameron. Thanks I know.

  10. Stitchedup says:

    Unfortunately, I have to agree with the Dr. The only thing that will change the current situation is to hit the country in the pocket because money matters more than the right of a child to have a meaningful relationship with both parents or indeed the lives of men. I’m not at all surprised by the probation officer’s comments, it’s common knowledge the probation service are a feminist organisation. Only mass industrial action will make any difference.

    • Paul says:

      There will be no mass uprising. Theres approximatly 4 million people (fathers) caught up in the system at anyone time. All of them at differnt stages of hope/hopelessness. All wanting to appear reserved not to give the impression of someone destructive to give an impression of respectability so they do not give the courts an excuse to stop contact. Unfortunatly behaving and restraining yourself is exactly what allows this to continue. There needs to be a back lash. Not compliance. Ive thought about this. Fathers 4 Justice did it the nice way. Look where that got them. Exactly nowhere. Nothing changed.
      (*Comment moderated)

      • Stitchedup says:

        I couldn’t condone that, you would effectively be playing straight into the hands of your accusers. The suffrage movement did engage in violent acts and feminists often incite violence against men and/or women who oppose their views, e.g. Erin Pizzey received death threats and bomb threats. I’m of the opinion that two wrongs do not make a right which is,why I’m against convicting mothers for breaches of civil orders where the act that constitutes the breach would not normally be considered criminal behaviour. Criminalising parents caught up in acrimonious divorce / separation proceedings is absolutely not the answer and is most certainly not in the interests of any children involved.
        (*Comment moderated)

        • Paul says:

          Nobody would condone that. I was simply saying that is the only way I could think to effect change. At the moment these people have an open licence to abduct your children/stop you from seeing your childen and make a £100 million pound profit from you trying to see your children again.
          Nobody is going to change a system which grosses £100 million. There is no incentive or reason to change. Not one bit of concern is been raised in parliment over a system which has directly lead to the ‘deaths’ of 4000 men and fathers.
          It not about two wrongs. Its about few wrongs to stop generations of wrongs. Wrongs which are taking place in court rooms up and down the country everyday.
          When Hitler invaded Poland. How differnt would the world be if Churchill said. Oh well, two wrongs don’t make a right.
          I don’t think people understand the gravity of the injustice which is taking place or we would all be up in arms.
          As for playing into the hands of my accuser. She has already won. They have stopped me seeing my kids for over three years for no reason. There is not one shread of evidence to say I have been anything other than a top father. Yet the court would not even hear me speak in court. The trial was a joke. The trial was a complete and utter witch trial. This is a dark age problem.
          You ask any of those people in that court room why they were stopping me from seeing my kids. I doubt they could even tell you. I did not pay a solictor. I did not pay the ransom. Thats all.

          • dr. manhattan62 says:

            “When Hitler invaded Poland. How differnt would the world be if Churchill said. Oh well, two wrongs don’t make a right.”

            Yes Paul you make some good points.
            and when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor How different would the world be if Roosevelt said Oh well, thats the way things go, not much we can do.
            But no, both these two strong leaders did in fact awake the sleeping Giant. the rest is history and thanks to them we are here to know what happened and how the future is shaped by it. the SS and Family courts will have their 6th Aug 1945 in the end. metaphorically speaking of course.

          • Stitchedup says:

            I think you’re both missing my point chaps. We didn’t respond to Hitler with a reciprocal Holocaust; we were/are better than that. Sorry to invoke Godwin’s law and offence meant. Nobody is saying oh well that’s the way things go, it’s a matter of how we tackle it.

          • Paul says:

            We absolutly did respond to the Nazi threat by reciprical slaughter.
            We carpet bombed Berlin as a response to the bombing of Brittish citys.
            The Americans killed more people with two bombs than the german concentration camps could have killed at their peek of opperation.
            We absolutely did answer Haulocaust with Haulocaust.
            An there absolutly was no other way. You just have to realise you are a war and your way of life is been threatened.
            Then you must do what is nessisary.

          • Stitchedup says:

            Paul, I think you know we’re in the same boat. The family courts and criminal courts have clearly lost the plot. Their treatment of men/fathers is scandalous, and I firmly believe that, in future this period of family and criminal law will be looked upon as a very dark period; a period when the legal system and judiciary had clearly lost it’s moral compass.

          • Paul says:

            Problem is. This is getting worse not better. The chorosive femanist core in our political system are escalating measures against ‘men’ as we speak. In their eyes we are a potential rapists. We are a walking threat to all women. If we do not stand up and fight now we will lose all our civil rights.
            Sounds like a work of paranoid sci-fi ? (So was ORWELLS 1984) – its NOT its happening. We have already been on the ugly end of it. In the family court arena.
            Men are all now reguarded as proponants of domestic violence. Its just who we are. The police effectively opperate on the assumption that we are animals who cannot control our actions.
            Do not underestimate how deep this goes or where it will end.

  11. Paul says:

    No they won’t. Because nobody will take the fight to them. Thats my point. We are a generation of men who have our kids snatched by a peice of paper an say oh well thats that then lets blog about it.
    Your kids and grand kids will also end up in this system facing the SS.

  12. Stitchedup says:

    I think before we take the fight to them we need to have a consensus on tactics and strategy which the various men’s organisations do not have at the moment. I live in Wales but I don’t attend families need fathers cymru meetings because imho they do not front up to the judiciary and family /criminal courts forcefully enough. They also appear to have a strategy that encourages non molestation orders and by default that encourages more convictions of parents for acts that in normal circumstances would not be considered criminal acts. My personal preference is to publicly embarrass and shame the courts and judiciary and publicise nonsense convictions and compelling evidence/statistics that demonstrates the harm they are doing. Once we have a consensus we will have strength in numbers and then we can make our voices heard.

    • Paul says:

      There will be no concensus. Varrious mens organisations. Sums the whole problem up. Who is listening to varrious mens groups. There is one for every day of the month. There was a time when FFJ were got the attention the cause needs. They were truely inspired. Peaceful but you could not ignore them. Now we have a drivelling ecco chamber men talking to other men who already understand the problem.
      Its not enough…..
      This is a green light to carry on with this BS indefinatly. They have no impact or influance.

  13. Paul says:

    Varrious mens groups pool their ideas and thoughts together compile letters and collect signatures and present them to parliement where the are scrutinised and deliberated on by the partys core femanist think tank. An then what happens ?
    Its absurd.

  14. Paul Massey says:

    Nice to see that LIPs have something to spend their money on other than lawyers… 😉

    • Dr. Manhattan. says:

      Absolutely.
      its staggering how many Millions have been spent on Legal aid Solicitors who just dont bother to put in the effort to win a case. Tax payers have been Fleeced while parents have to go home and contemplate the future without their children. all because the Solicitors paid to fight for justice didnt bother to Fight and instead just go along for the ride. Tack box Society springs to mind. No real Engagement to challenge Local authorities or the Judges themselves. its unforgivable and my Heart goes out to all those good parents who lost their children via this shambolic System.

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