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14 February 2025 / Ellie Hampson-Jones , Carla Ditz
Issue: 8104 / Categories: Features , Family , Divorce
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Family law brief: February 2025

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Ellie Hampson-Jones & Carla Ditz analyse the outcomes of the first Family Court Annual Report, as well as other crucial developments in the field
  • This quarterly NLJ update explores recent, published judgments and other news relating to family law to help practitioners stay up to date.

The latter part of 2024 saw a number of significant developments in the family law world, in addition to some important published judgments. In this update, we consider:

  • the family court’s latest annual report;
  • the Law Commission’s scoping report on the laws governing finances on divorce and the ending of a civil partnership;
  • the final report of the Duxbury working party; and
  • interpreting a final order in light of the parties’ intentions: XP and YP [2024] EWFC 319 (B).

The Family Court Annual Report 2024

On 2 December 2024, the president of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, published the Family Court Annual Report. This report, the first of its kind, focuses on developments and activity in the family

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

Keystone Law—Milena Szuniewicz-Wenzel & Ian Hopkinson

International arbitration team strengthened by double partner hire

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Coodes Solicitors—Pam Johns, Rachel Pearce & Bradley Kaine

Firm celebrates trio holding senior regional law society and junior lawyers division roles

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Michelman Robinson—Sukhi Kaler

Partner joins commercial and business litigation team in London

NEWS
The Legal Action Group (LAG)—the UK charity dedicated to advancing access to justice—has unveiled its calendar of training courses, seminars and conferences designed to support lawyers, advisers and other legal professionals in tackling key areas of public interest law
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 transformed criminal justice. Writing in NLJ this week, Ed Cape of UWE and Matthew Hardcastle and Sandra Paul of Kingsley Napley trace its ‘seismic impact’
Operational resilience is no longer optional. Writing in NLJ this week, Emma Radmore and Michael Lewis of Womble Bond Dickinson explain how UK regulators expect firms to identify ‘important business services’ that could cause ‘intolerable levels of harm’ if disrupted
As the drip-feed of Epstein disclosures fuels ‘collateral damage’, the rush to cry misconduct in public office may be premature. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke of Hill Dickinson warns that the offence is no catch-all for political embarrassment. It demands a ‘grave departure’ from proper standards, an ‘abuse of the public’s trust’ and conduct ‘sufficiently serious to warrant criminal punishment’
Employment law is shifting at the margins. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ this week, Ian Smith of Norwich Law School examines a Court of Appeal ruling confirming that volunteers are not a special legal species and may qualify as ‘workers’
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