‘A High Court judge has given guidance on when applications for a psychologist to undertake a cognitive assessment in care proceedings should be made and the approach that the Family Court should take, warning that “misconceived applications are exceedingly common”.’
Local Government Lawyer, 27th February 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Louise Thomson analyses a judgment containing valuable guidance on the use of intermediaries in the Family Court.’
Local Government Lawyer, 16th February 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘A Family Court judge has made a supervision order for a period of 12 months in order for a baby boy to remain in the care of his parents, in light of the progress they have made through participation in the Family Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) programme.’
Local Government Lawyer, 14th February 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The delivery of a judgment “is not a transactional process” and its contents are “not open to negotiation”, the Court of Appeal has warned, saying the clarification procedure was being misused in family cases.’
Legal Futures, 12th February 2024
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘Between August 2022 and June 2023, I observed, online, a number of hearings in a single case heard by His Honour Judge Shelton who is a judge in the family court in Leeds. The case was about the amount of money that the father/ex husband (James) should pay towards his ex-wife Beth and their daughter Isabelle. (These are fake names.) He had been paying £100 per month to Beth and £1500 to Isabelle. The case was unusual because Isabelle was an adult. Normally, a parent would not have to pay maintenance for an adult child, but there are exceptions to this and one of the exceptions is where the adult child is disabled. Isabelle has multiple physical and intellectual difficulties She lived with Beth in an adapted home and Beth provided her with full-time care, including with the help of various carers.’
Transparency Project, 6th February 2024
Source: transparencyproject.org.uk
‘Allowing journalists to report on hearings is welcome. Now editors need to give them the resources to be able to tell these complex stories properly.’
The Guardian, 31st January 2024
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘Children will be better protected from the impact of lengthy courtroom battles thanks to pioneering measures to help families resolve disputes as swiftly as easily possible.’
Ministry of Justice, 26th January 2024
Source: www.gov.uk
‘Austerity has contributed to a rise in the number of children in care, the most senior judge in the family courts has told the BBC.’
BBC News, 29th January 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘The government is to launch a pilot of early legal advice for separating couples to judge what impact it could have to speed up a resolution.’
Legal Furures, 26th January 2024
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘The High Court has given guidance on the use of intermediaries in the Family Court, in a case concerning a 2-and-a-half year old girl, which was in week 127 at the hearing last month.’
Local Government Lawyer, 25th January 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘When it is disputed whether a person uses drugs, the family court can – and often does – order hair strand testing to determine the issue. This article draws upon the work of lawyer Sarah Branson and drug tester Paul Hunter, who have explored the limitations of hair strand testing and highlighted the need for caution in relying on hair strand test results (See Recent scientific developments in hair strand testing and racial bias in current practices of hair strand testing. I’m going to call this ‘the Fam Law article’). Even so, hair strand testing continues to be the ’go-to’ when there is a question over drug use. Despite an increasing recognition of the possibility of mistakes and errors in the production and reporting of hair strand test evidence, this evidence is still regularly relied upon by the courts as evidence of substance use. These problems are often underestimated, which can have disastrous consequences.’
Transparency Project, 24th January 2024
Source: transparencyproject.org.uk
‘The Court of Appeal has allowed a Guardian’s appeal against a family judge’s conclusion that she did not have jurisdiction to grant an injunction.’
Local Government Lawyer, 12th January 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘In a familiar line of cases of which the first was BT v CU [2021] EWFC 87, [2022] 1 WLR 1349, paras [100]–[114], and the last In re PP (A Child: Anonymisation) [2023] EWHC 330 (Fam), [2023] 4 WLR 48, paras [49]–[62], and Augousti v Matharu [2023] EWHC 1900 (Fam), paras [68]–[93], Mostyn J has explosively ignited a most necessary debate about the anonymisation of judgments in financial remedy cases. Part of his compelling analysis – which, so far as I am aware, no-one has yet succeeded in challenging successfully – relates to the use, or as he would have it, the inveterate misuse of the rubric attached to judgments in such cases.’
Financial Remedies Journal, 8th January 2024
Source: financialremediesjournal.com
‘A pilot scheme to allow journalists and legal bloggers to report cases from three family courts in England and Wales is to be extended to almost half of the courts in the countries.’
BBC News, 12th January 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘There were 1,655 applications relating to deprivation of liberty under the Mental Capacity Act made in the most recent quarter (July to September 2023), an increase of less than 1% on the number made in the same quarter in 2022, government data has revealed.’
Local Government Lawyer, 4th January 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘Legal aid can be difficult to obtain in private family law proceedings. Many parties now therefore choose to represent themselves.’
Devon Chambers, 4th November 2023
Source: devonchambers.co.uk
‘Family Law Newsletter 02; including articles from around the web, Legislation updates and Case Updates from Care Proceedings and Financial Remedy matters.’
Spire Barristers, 28th November 2023
Source: www.spirebarristers.co.uk
‘The Law Society has welcomed the announcement that expenses will be added to the qualified legal representative (QLR) scheme in domestic abuse cases, but says fees are still too low.’
Law Society's Gazette, 11th December 2023
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘A litigation friend who was said to be suffering from depression has been ordered to pay more than £42,000 in costs after a judge found his performance “wholly inadequate.”’
Law Society's Gazette, 23rd November 2023
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has outlined a “pressing need” for courts and those who advise them to modernise the approach that is taken to supporting young, adopted persons by “enhancing the degree to which they may maintain some form of relationship with their birth family after adoption”.’
Local Government Lawyer, 22nd November 2023
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
© Inner Temple Library 2024