Abstract
Scant academic attention has been paid to damaging contradictions in the responsibilisation of mothers regarding the quality of fathers' relationships with their children in Private Law Proceedings (PLP), otherwise known as the family court. Recent research has highlighted both the poor physical and mental health experiences of women going through family court proceedings and how parental alienation allegations are weaponised to trap, silence, and pathologise mothers. This paper utilises an autoethnographic case study to explore the positioning of mothers by professionals within complex discourses of motherhood in PLP. The regulation, surveillance and possible sanctions of the PLP left limited options for resistance, as to resist the position of the 'good' mother could result in detrimental sanctions against the mother and children. This paper evidences how patriarchal institutional processes are complicit in enabling fathers to maintain coercive control over mothers and their children. There are loud calls for change on how victims of domestic abuse (emotional and physical) are treated in any court they are being heard in, with 89% of victims not receiving any support in the family court process (Safelives, 2021). Family courts in England and Wales are failing mothers daily (XX, 2023) and this is increasingly recognised by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner (DAC) and Victims Commissioner in the UK. We are not short on testimony, however, due to the secrecy of the courts and legal restrictions, the public lacks full disclosure on the myriads of court practitioners and their impact. This paper provides unparalleled insights and unique access to information that illustrates how practitioners as part of the patriarchal court system are complicit in the abuse of mothers through the legal process. 2