Kathleen Marshall, Scotland's commissioner for children and young people, told The Daily Telegraph that her experience is that children don't want to sue: "But some parents use their children in a divorce to antagonise their previous partner. That's where there is a terrible failure in parenting that leaves a child no alternative but to sue for money."
Predictably, there are claims that the compensation culture has gone mad. Annabel Goldie, the Tory justice spokeswoman in Scotland, said the rise in cases was alarming. "Surely we're not going to shout for a lawyer every time there's a family problem."
The idea is absurd, but is a perfect example of the tendency to ridicule children's attempts to be actors in their own interests. Litigation should always be a last resort. But if all else has failed, why shouldn't children have access to the law in their own right, just like any other citizen?
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