'Cup of tea' succeeds where decade of litigation fails
A man and woman who became embroiled in years of legal action over their children following a split have reached a consensus after a British High Court judge suggested they should “sit down around the kitchen table” and have a cup of tea together.
Mrs Justice Pauffley said she made “some practical proposals” after a “dismal decade of litigation” and each parent had “reacted positively”.
The judge said they had agreed to “share” the 12-year-old twin boys at the centre of the dispute and had accepted that a return to litigation would be a “profoundly retrograde step”.
She said the case showed that protracted legal proceedings over children are “profoundly harmful to everyone concerned”, and added that letters written by the youngsters “made me sad”.
Detail emerged in a written analysis of the case by the judge following the latest hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London.
