header-logo header-logo

Family law: taking a different turn

12 April 2024 / Caroline Bowden
Issue: 8066 / Categories: Features , Family , Mediation
printer mail-detail
167834
With FPR changes focusing on non-court solutions, Caroline Bowden suggests solicitors send clients to a MIAM, aim to settle and try to keep appropriate clients out of court
  • Sets out key changes and offers practical advice to family lawyers on the FPR changes, due to take effect from 29 April 2024.
  • There may be no new legislation to make mediation compulsory, but the changes are likely to have an impact on the way solicitors work.
  • Lawyers should aim to resolve client issues away from court, where possible.
  • Explains the exemptions to non-court dispute resolution.

Solicitors have a key role in steering their clients through to settlement. For too long, too many do so with a court-based mindset, even while conducting negotiations. However, in future all lawyers will have to pay more attention to the non-court space, as well as the pre-court space. If attempts at settlement via correspondence have broken down, or even if they never started, lawyers will need to think of every conceivable way of avoiding court,

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

NEWS
Robert Taylor of 360 Law Services warns in this week's NLJ that adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) risks entrenching disadvantage for SME law firms, unless tools are tailored to their needs
From oligarchs to cosmetic clinics, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) target journalists, activists and ordinary citizens with intimidating legal tactics. Writing in NLJ this week, Sadie Whittam of Lancaster University explores the weaponisation of litigation to silence critics
Delays and dysfunction continue to mount in the county court, as revealed in a scathing Justice Committee report and under discussion this week by NLJ columnist Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School. Bulk claims—especially from private parking firms—are overwhelming the system, with 8,000 cases filed weekly
Writing in NLJ this week, Thomas Rothwell and Kavish Shah of Falcon Chambers unpack the surprise inclusion of a ban on upwards-only rent reviews in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve charts the turbulent progress of the Employment Rights Bill through the House of Lords, in this week's NLJ
back-to-top-scroll