Family Court

A number of different factors have been identified which may be associated with the complexity of a case. The Department for Courts may wish to test the significance of these factors. It might consider using statistical techniques which would attempt to assess the overall risk of a case becoming complex based on a number of contributing factors. If such an approach were successful it might result in the identification of those factors which do have a significant influence on case complexity and the relative weight that should be placed on each factor or combination of factors.

This section discusses any issues, identified during the interviews, which relate to the feasibility of such an approach. As such, the issues raised here are only some of the issues that would need to be considered when assessing the feasibility. Furthermore, the information obtained from the interviews is not sufficient to make any judgement about whether such an approach is likely to be feasible or not.

When developing the type of statistical models discussed above, analysts are usually careful to consider that potential explanatory variables could be correlated. The feedback from informants suggests that there may be correlations between a number of different characteristics identified in this report. For example, in the interviews there were suggestions that difficult personalities can manifest themselves in a number of ways such as:

• previous complex applications,
• self-representation,
• cross applications,
• changes of counsel and litigious behaviour.

Given that correlations are likely, the Department should take the necessary steps to allow for any correlations if undertaking statistical modelling work of this nature.