Coronavirus: Pandemic has ‘catastrophic’ impact on families
BBC News
The coronavirus pandemic has had a “catastrophic” impact on many families, a counselling charity has warned.
Family law solicitor Sinead Larkin said her firm, Larkin Cassidy, is one of many now dealing with a backlog of cases.
“For many couples, the extended period of time at home brought into sharp focus any fault lines within the marriages”, Ms Larkin said.
“In normal times, some couples paper over issues and engage in avoidance, because they go out to work, spend time apart, or are focused on rearing the children.
“What we saw was that these fractures had turned into unassailable chasms during the pandemic, because there was no escaping each other.”
However, she stressed that to focus solely on the spike in the number of requests for legal assistance would be to “ignore the wider public health crisis hurtling towards us”.