header-logo header-logo

Family pulls together

10 June 2020
Issue: 7890 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Covid-19 , Profession
printer mail-detail
‘The Road Ahead’ set out for family courts
Senior family judge, Sir Andrew McFarlane has set out a road map for remote working and social distancing in the family courts in the next six months.

The document, ‘The Road Ahead’, draws on a report into remote hearings in the family court published by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory in May. It advises family lawyers to assume social distancing restrictions will remain in place for ‘many months’ and the ‘normal court working environment’ will not be achieved until at least the end of 2020 or the spring of 2021. Consequently, ‘apparent potential unfairness’ which justified adjournment for a short period of time ‘must now be re-evaluated’.

Sir Andrew, President of the Family Division, said: ‘The need to achieve finality in decision-making for children and families, the detrimental effect of delay and the overall impact on the wider system of an ever-growing backlog must form important elements in judicial decision making alongside the need for fairness to all parties.’

However, various steps to reduce the potential for unfairness have been identified, which means more cases can proceed, he said. For example, the easing of lockdown gives lay parties the option of taking part in remote hearings from their solicitor’s office or other location where IT support is available.

Meanwhile, volumes of private and public cases have continued at pre-coronavirus levels, applications for domestic abuse injunctions have remained the same or, in certain inner-city areas, ‘significantly risen’. Sir Andrew predicted a ‘surge’ in child protection cases once more children came out of lockdown.

He urged judges and lawyers to keep submissions and judgments brief and relevant, as time is short. Read the full document at: bit.ly/3cQS39I.

Meanwhile, the High Court has begun a judicial review of the legal aid means test, brought by a domestic abuse victim denied legal aid because she co-owns her house with her former partner.

Law Society president Simon Davis said victims could not access the equity in their home and were left ‘navigating the court system alone and representing themselves in court against their abusive ex-partner’.

The Ministry of Justice was reviewing the legal aid means test before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Issue: 7890 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Covid-19 , Profession
printer mail-details

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
back-to-top-scroll