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Of magic circles & ‘financial remedies courts’

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23 September 2022 / David Burrows
Issue: 7995 / Categories: Features , Family , Procedure & practice
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David Burrows reflects on the state of family law & considers the chances of alignment of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 with the Civil Procedure Rules 1998
  • Questions our understanding of the ‘magic circle’ of family lawyers.
  • Discusses the single family court and the use of the term ‘financial remedies’.
  • Asks whether the FPR could ever be aligned with the CPR.

This article addresses three questions about the modern state of family law:

(1) What or who is the ‘magic circle’ of family lawyers?

(2) What is the meaning of a ‘financial remedies court’?

(3) In 2022 (and a much more important debate than the other two), what are the realistic chances of alignment of the Family Procedure Rules with the Civil Procedure Rules 1998?

A first thing to assert is that the term ‘financial remedy’ does not exist in statute. It was made up by rule-makers in and approaching April 2011 when the new Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) came into operation. The terms approved in statute—rules

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