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19 March 2009
Issue: 7361 / Categories: Legal News , Family
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Family justice inquiry

Family

Child protection lawyers have joined with the NSPCC to call for an urgent Parliamentary inquiry into the state of the family justice system.

A letter fired off to the chairman of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, Alan Beith MP, this week warns of mounting concern about the impact of repeated cuts in the family justice system.

The letter refers to the report, The Work of the Family Bar by Dr Debora Price and Anne Laybourne of King’s College London, which showed family law barristers were “close to breaking point” (as reported in NLJ, 13 March 2009, p 361).

It adds: “As the Ministry of Justice and the Legal Services Commission prepare to implement further cuts in family legal aid...access to family practitioners, who are best able to represent the interests of vulnerable families and children, is being further constrained.”

 

Issue: 7361 / Categories: Legal News , Family
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Carey Olsen—Patrick Ormond

Partner joinscorporate and finance practice in British Virgin Islands

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Dawson Cornwell—Naomi Angell

Firm strengthens children department with adoption and surrogacy expert

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Penningtons Manches Cooper—Graham Green

Media and technology expert joins employment team as partner in Cambridge

NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Thousands more magistrates are to be recruited, under a major shake-up to speed up and expand the hiring process
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
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