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Divorce Professionals in Flanders: Policy and Practice Examined
Author(s) -
Baitar Rachid,
Buysse Ann,
Brondeel Ruben,
De Mol Jan,
Rober Peter
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/fcre.12051
Subject(s) - legislation , mediation , flemish , presumption , mental health , set (abstract data type) , legal guardian , political science , public relations , psychology , law , psychiatry , archaeology , computer science , history , programming language
Recent B elgian policy changes led to progressive shared parenting, mediation, and no‐fault legislation. However, little is known about the practices and policy preferences of the implicated professionals. The present study surveyed 664 F lemish divorce lawyers, mental health professionals, and mediators. The majority of professionals supports no‐fault divorce legislation, unified family courts, court‐independent mediation, and well‐informed trajectory decisions, but disagree with a primary caretaker presumption. Equally shared parenting agreements were uncommon in lawyers' practice and most frequent among mediators. Yet, whereas mediators were mostly skeptical, the majority of lawyers were convinced of the positive effect of such agreements on children. Mental health professionals are set apart by exclusive maternal authority agreements and rarely providing trajectory information in their practice. Implications for clients, practice, and policy are addressed. Keypoints for the Family Court Community Discusses recent sociological and legal developments in Flanders Details key policy and practice preferences of different divorce professionals Clarifies policy and practice differences and similarities between divorce professionals on: Equally shared parenting agreements No‐fault divorce and the nature of mediation services Informing on divorce trajectories and changing divorce trajectories Informs on possibilities for interprofessionnal collaboration and areas of expertise