1 Special Nature of Family Law Cases

Why family disputes are not ordinary civil disputes (the four syllabus markers): 1. Children involved: the child's welfare the silent party in every case — the custody, maintenance and visitation decisions' life-long consequences; the child's voice-and-protection requirements (the Children's Act 2075; the CRC); 2. Relations within the family involved: the parties' continuing relationship (co-parenting after divorce; the parents-and-children across generations) — the zero-sum civil suit's wrong fit; the reconciliation-and-relationship-preservation dimension; the privacy of the household's interior; 3. Sensitive: the emotional-and-psychological texture (violence, betrayal, stigma); the evidentiary intimacies (consummation, cruelty, paternity); the gendered power imbalances (the wife's economic dependence; the documentation gaps); 4. Speedy justice required: delay's unique damage — the child's childhood spent in the interim; the maintenance-less spouse's survival; the family assets' dissipation-and-hiding during the case's pendency; the constitutional right to speedy justice (Constitutional Law-II's Article 20 frame).