Reimagining communication and elicitation strategies in private family proceedings

Abstract

The article focusses on communication and discursive practices in private family proceedings with the aim of exploring procedural barriers obstructing court users from sharing their stories and having their voice heard. Drawing on survey and interview data in combination with the linguistically driven empirical method–ethnography of communication, the discussion illustrates the discrepancy between communicative aims of court users and communicative aims of individual procedural stages. The article expands on how information and narratives are currently elicited from court users and proposes how procedural changes could accommodate more effective elicitation strategies and enhance procedural justice tenets.