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Family law in crisis

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10 February 2014 / Ellen Lucas , Caroline Bowden , Kim Beatson
Categories: Features , Legal aid focus , Divorce , Child law , Mediation , Family , ADR
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Cuts to legal aid have thrown family proceedings into chaos, say Kim Beatson, Caroline Bowden & Ellen Lucas, in the second of an exclusive NLJ online series on legal aid post-LASPO

In June 2013 the case of Tufali v Riaz [2013] EWHC 1829 (Fam) came before Holman J. The parties had married in Pakistan in 2010 but the wife had brought divorce proceedings in England in 2012 where the parties had last lived together and the husband was habitually resident. In his Acknowledgement of Service the husband claimed that the parties had already been divorced in Pakistan but no answer was filed. On pronouncement of Decree Nisi a solicitor representing the husband sent a photocopy of a divorce certificate from the Union Council in Pakistan to the court. The district judge adjourned pronouncement of the Decree to enable further evidence to be filed. 

At the hearing before Holman J neither party was legally represented and there was no expert evidence on the law in Pakistan. The wife

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