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In safe hands?

04 March 2016 / David Burrows
Issue: 7689 / Categories: Features , Family
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David Burrows explores how courts strive to balance the search for justice with protecting vulnerable witnesses

While a response is awaited from the Family Procedure Rules Committee on a variety of recommendations on how the family courts might improve the lot of vulnerable witnesses and children, judges have been gradually improving the law to recognise the rights and needs of victims of abuse and child witnesses. The decisions considered here will improve the position of some vulnerable individuals in family proceedings. Meanwhile rule-makers still fail to act on the Report of the Vulnerable Witnesses & Children Working Group, February 2015. Draft amendment rules were published in August 2015, many of whose provisions already exist for children in criminal proceedings following the introduction of Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.

Evidence in family proceedings

In Re S (Children) [2016] EWCA Civ 83, [2016] All ER (D) 148 (Feb) the Court of Appeal looked at whether a child, K, who had alleged serious sexual abuse by her brother, B, since she was six, should

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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

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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
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
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
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