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Child law update

11 October 2007 / Ceri White
Issue: 7292 / Categories: Features , Child law
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new public law outline >>
early hearing dates >>
pre-proceedings checklist >>
doubts about efficacy >>

The once-vaunted Public Law Protocol was supplanted in September by the new Public Law Outline (PLO). London, along with nine other areas—Liverpool, Portsmouth, Oxford/Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Leicester, Newcastle, Warrington, Swansea and Plymouth/Exeter—have been selected as “initiative centres” to pilot the outline.

A lack of pre-launch publicity has resulted in an alarming ignorance about the existence of the new outline, which is now being remedied in the piloting areas. A recent London meeting to explain the new procedures saw many practitioners (myself included) frantically scribbling down Mr Justice Ryder and District Judge Cushing’s pearls of wisdom.

AIM OF THE NEW OUTLINE

The aim of the outline is to reduce the inordinate delay between application and disposal suffered by children in care proceedings. Everyone accepts that the current care centre average of 51 weeks from application to disposal (42 weeks at Family Proceedings Court level) is far too long and has invidious consequences for the children involved, regardless of whether or not they

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Artificial intelligence may be revolutionising the law, but its misuse could wreck cases and careers, warns Clare Arthurs of Penningtons Manches Cooper in this week's NLJ
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