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10 January 2025
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Divorce , Child law
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NLJ this week: Family law focus & looking ahead to 2025

202719
Family law moved fast last year, with a renewed focus on non-court dispute resolution, more transparency and new protections for domestic abuse victims. And there’s more to come in 2025, as Ruth Omoregie, associate solicitor, and Lola Ajayi, solicitor at Anthony Gold, write in this week’s NLJ.

Omoregie and Ajayi explore key developments and decisions in the past year, including an important decision on the matrimonialisation of assets, examining their implications for families navigating legal challenges.

As for the year ahead, reforms could be introduced on financial remedies on divorce and the rights of cohabiting couples.

Omoregie and Ajayi write: ‘Some jurisdictions, such as Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand, have implemented reforms to offer better protections for cohabitants, such as laws to protect cohabiting couples or provisions of a de facto legal status after a period of cohabitation/children. There are calls for similar reforms in England and Wales, with expectations of change in the near future.’
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Divorce , Child law
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Thackray Williams—Lucy Zhu

Dual-qualified partner joins as head of commercial property department

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Morgan Lewis—David A. McManus

Firm announces appointment of next chair

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Burges Salmon—Rebecca Wilsker

Director joins corporate team from the US

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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