Change ahead for family

Family lawyers face a “plethora” of procedure rules amendments and changes in the coming year as the new family court opens for business.

According to Geraldine Morris, solicitor and head of LexisPSL Family, the changes will apply “in particular as to terminology but more significantly as to the issue of proceedings, allocation and transfers”. The new, unified court is due to open in April, and will cover all family law cases.

Writing in NLJ this week, Morris says private children law will “follow a new path in 2014” with the advent of child arrangement orders and new provisions on pre-action mediation to be brought in by the Children and Families Bill. Key recommendations for lawyers and judges are that they maintain continuity wherever possible, and ensure parties are given specific dates before hearings conclude.

She highlights “an apparent conflict between the government’s “fostering to adopt” plans and decisions in the Court of Appeal.

“2014 is likely to see more case law addressing placement orders and also the medium-term effects of the shortened timescales within which care and supervision orders must be concluded,” she says.

“While legal aid remains generally available for public law proceedings, there are gaps. In F (A child) [2013] EWCA Civ 1277 Black LJ highlighted the issue of lack of public funding for parents who wish to contest an application for a placement order, a situation she described as ‘wholly unacceptable in proceedings which may lead to the permanent severance of the relationship of parent and child’.”