The Family Court System Is Failing Those Most at Risk

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Across the country, survivors of domestic abuse and their children are being failed by the very systems meant to protect them.

Family courts, driven by a pro-contact culture, are routinely prioritising parental involvement over child safety — regardless of abuse histories, coercive control, or ongoing harm. Systemic delays, unregulated “expert” assessments, and the misuse of repeated contact applications by abusive parents are not isolated incidents. They are patterns—and they are putting lives in danger.

Too often, serious allegations of abuse are dismissed without a fact-finding hearing.

Survivors are disbelieved. Children are silenced. And decisions that shape young lives are made with minimal scrutiny, influenced by outdated assumptions, pseudoscience, or undue pressure to promote contact at all costs.

The consequences are devastating — and they’re happening in plain sight.

Here at Deanna Newell Family Law we stand firmly behind the calls for urgent reform.

The Government must publish and implement the long-overdue review into the presumption of parental involvement. But that alone is not enough.

We need a system-wide cultural shift — one that places the voices, needs, and safety of survivors and children at the centre of every decision. Not as an afterthought. Not as a competing narrative. But as the starting point.

Boundaries Are Not Hostility — They Are Protective Parenting

In the aftermath of abuse, survivors are often accused of being “hostile” or “uncooperative” — not for obstructing relationships, but for setting boundaries. For refusing to be coerced, for insisting on safeguarding, for protecting their children when systems fail to.

This narrative must change.

Here are examples of boundary-setting statements that survivors often need to use in co-parenting or court-ordered communication:-

• “I will not engage in baseless accusations. Let us please stay focused on what is best for our child”

• “That statement is inaccurate, and I will not entertain false narratives.”

• “I’m open to discussing real concerns, but I won’t respond to unfounded claims.”

• “Misrepresenting the situation doesn’t change the facts.”

• “I will not engage in perceived conflict or mischaracterisation. I will only respond to messages concerning our children.”

These are not signs of alienation. They are signs of self-respect, trauma-informed boundaries, and protective parenting.

It is time that our systems learned the difference.

Family Courts Are Being Misused

One of the most alarming trends in family law today is the weaponisation of “parental alienation”.

False claims are increasingly being used to:-

• Discredit survivors

• Silence children

• Distract from patterns of abuse

• Avoid paying child maintenance

Children are being used as leverage — caught in legal strategies, not listened to as people with rights. And the results are tragic.

We Need Urgent Reform

If we are serious about protecting children, we must address the structural flaws that allow abuse to be reframed as “conflict” and boundaries to be labelled “hostile.”

Here at Deanna Newell Family Law we are calling for:-

•  Mandatory, specialist training on coercive control for all family court professionals

•  Independent, regulated psychological assessments — not unqualified or court-appointed “experts” with ideological bias

• Legal accountability for false or malicious allegations, including misuse of parental alienation

• Recognition of financial abuse, including child maintenance evasion, as a form of economic coercion

Children Deserve Better

Children deserve safety, truth, and protection — not to be used as pawns in legal games or collateral in adult disputes.

CHildren deserve a system that hears their voices, understands trauma, and places their welfare above all else.

It’s time to stop empowering abusers through legal loopholes.

It’s time to reform the family court system — for the children, for the survivors, and for justice.

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Deanna Newell Family Law

Advocacy for truth-tellers, survivors, and the children who deserve better