Family

Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, explores the growing complexity of drug misuse in family proceedings and why a clearer understanding of the main drug groups is essential for legal professionals

Rising numbers of cases, an increase in litigants in person and an overall lack of investment is piling pressure on the family court, the Law Society has warned

When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ

David Burrows explores examples where a non-party can join a case about who gets what in the divorce

New reforms go some way towards filling employment law’s long-acknowledged statutory gap, writes Robert Hargreaves

Bereavement leave is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Writing in NLJ this week, Robert Hargreaves of York St John University explains how the Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a day-one right to leave for a wider range of losses, alongside new provisions for pregnancy loss and bereaved partners

Pathfinder courts—renamed ‘Child focused courts’—are to be rolled out nationally, following a successful pilot where backlogs halved and cases were resolved up to seven and a half months faster

The Court of Appeal has unanimously dismissed a £385,000 costs order against a father, in a case that centred on what is required to meet the threshold of ‘reprehensible or unreasonable’ behaviour

A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’

Charlotte Coyle sets out what modern families & practitioners need to know after Cator v Thynn