Posts
Another view on the government ‘spotlight review’ report – on how the family courts treat domestic abuse
This is a guest post by Ursula Rice. Ursula is a Solicitor-Advocate and Director at Family First Solicitors. She tweets as @tweetygraffity. We hope to publish more posts about this Review in the coming days. You can read previous posts here and here. On...
Right of audience denied: McKenzie Friend not allowed to speak for litigant who was ‘well able to speak on her own behalf’
The recent case of Ameyaw v McGoldrick [2020] EWHC 1741 (QB) offers a cautionary tale about McKenzie Friends and what they can and can't do for you in court. In this case the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, refused to allow the MF to make oral submissions on behalf of the...
A triad of judgments from the Supreme Court
This post provides an update to Polly Morgan's 'State of the Union' post, which outlined the Villiers' case when it was first heard. We suggest you read that original post first, because the facts and the legal concepts are explained more fully there. This is a very...
Spotlight Review: Breaking the Cycle of Failure for LIPs?
This is a guest post by Dr Jess Mant, Lecturer in Law at Cardiff University School of Law and Politics. Jess was recently awarded a PhD for her study on 'Litigants in Person and the Family Court: The Accessibility of Private Family Justice After LASPO'. We hope to...
HMCTS response to letter on open justice in the COVID-19 emergency
The chief executive of HMCTS, Susan Acland-Hood, has responded to an open letter from NGOs and academics raising concerns about the provision of open justice measures during the COVID-19 emergency period. In summary, the response confirms: that for public hearings...
Spotlight domestic abuse review – big changes ahead for Family Court
The final report from the spotlight review of family courts' handling of domestic abuse has finally been published : Assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases The report is long and detailed and has generated quite a lot of...
The Court of Protection Mediation Scheme in Practice
This post was written by Alex Troup, barrister and mediator at St John's Chambers, and was first published on the Court of Protection Handbook blog, and is reproduced with kind permission. [Even though COVID-19 may be making everyone rethink how conventional...
Remote hearings, hybrid hearings, adjourned hearings
Lancashire County Council v M & Ors (COVID-19 Adjournment Application) [2020] EWFC 43 is another case (like Re C that we wrote on here) where an extraordinarily large number of professionals spent many hours working on a notion that was dismissed by the judge,...
Legal Blogging Pilot Flies On…
News just in that the legal blogging pilot (PD36J) has been extended until the end of December. The pilot has been running since 2018 and allows legally qualified legal bloggers to attend private family hearings to aid transparency. Earlier this year the Family...
News About Special Guardianship Orders
Two documents about special guardianship were published in mid June: A Public Law Working Group/Family Justice Council report and a Nuffield Family Justice Observatory research briefing on special guardianship orders (SGOs). The President of the Family Division has...