(This note is not part of the Order)
These Rules provide for the formation of a Committee, to be known as a family panel, for each local justice area. The family panel shall consist of the family justices for the local justice area and any Designated Judge (Magistrates’ Courts) who is nominated to hear family proceedings and who acts a justice of the peace in the local justice area concerned. The family panel will advise the appropriate body in relation to the number of justices required to sit and preside in family proceedings courts in its local justice area and will liaise with other bodies to share information and represent the views of family justices. The Rules make provision for there to be combined family panels.
The Rules also make provision for the chairmanship of family proceedings courts.