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03 February 2012 / Geraldine Morris
Issue: 7499 / Categories: Features , Child law , Family
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Forward thinking

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Family lawyers must adapt to survive in the year ahead, says Geraldine Morris

Last year was a challenging year for family lawyers and in 2012 there are many more challenges ahead. This may be the year that the practice of family law changes beyond all recognition and lawyers who do not adapt may not survive in a climate of new competition and the continuing economic downturn.

Cuts

With the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) looking to make inroads into the £2bn of savings it must make overall, 40% of courts have or will be closed and staff levels slashed with an estimated 15,000 jobs lost—one third of the total staff employed by the MoJ. Combined with the anticipated cuts to legal aid as a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (currently slowly navigating its way through Parliament), the challenge will be how to tackle a much reduced court service burdened with increasing numbers of litigants in person.

ADR

The Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), which came

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

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Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Slater Heelis—Charlotte Beck

Partner and Manchester office lead appointed head of family

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

Civil Justice Council—Nigel Teasdale

DWF insurance services director appointed to Civil Justice Council

R3—Jodie Wildridge

R3—Jodie Wildridge

Kings Chambers barrister appointed chair of R3 Yorkshire

NEWS
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NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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