Family

Juliet Harvey, national chair of family law organisation Resolution, gave an address at the Family Practice Conference in Nottingham on 7 October 2022 in which she highlighted the 'desperate state' of the family courts, which she described as 'underfunded and understaffed' with increasing delays and backlogs and statistics that show that the average period from the date of a divorce/dissolution petition/application to decree absolute/final order is now 56 weeks, up seven weeks from the same time last year. 

"It is both a toolkit and a very good reference guide for practitioners faced with cases which have the unfortunate element of parental alienation"

On 28 September 2022, the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, gave the John Cornwell Lecture 2022 to the Family Mediation Association Conference (FMAC). 

In the second in a series of articles in NLJ on child abductions, Mani Singh Basi looks at cases where children go on holiday and are not returned home. 

Mani Singh Basi examines the benefits & limitations of the Hague Convention in child abduction cases

David Burrows reflects on the state of family law & considers the chances of alignment of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 with the Civil Procedure Rules 1998

The shortlist for the annual LexisNexis Family Law Awards is out—and your vote is required.

Is there any hope on the horizon for much needed reform to the treatment of domestic abuse cases? Cris McCurley reports

A 2020 report raised hopes that much-needed change was coming to the treatment of domestic abuse cases in the family courts, but what has happened since? 

Tougher sentences for child cruelty could be introduced, along with a higher culpability threshold for the most serious cases, under draft guidelines from the Sentencing Council