Family Law

It’s that time of year - memories of sun, sea and sand are fading and it’s back to the office we all go. Welcome back (if, indeed, you did manage to get away)! So, what’s been happening in family law over the summer? Below is a quick summary of the main developments.

A View

On 17 August 2014 the President released a 13th View, called ‘The process of reform: an update’. It is available here.

Consultations/Reports

The Children and Vulnerable Witnesses Working Group Interim Report

The Children and Vulnerable Witnesses Working Group Interim Report was released on 12 August 2014.

For a helpful summary see: The Children and Vulnerable Witnesses Working Group – essential update

Report of the Financial Remedies Working Group - 31 July 2014

The Report of the Financial Remedies Working Group was released on 12 August 2014.

For a helpful summary see: The Financial Remedies Working Group – essential update

Transparency consultation

Transparency – The Next Steps: A Consultation Paper was released by the President on 15 August 2014.

For a helpful summary see: Transparency – essential update.

More draft orders

More draft orders were circulated. We’ve collated them all together here.

Legislation and practice directions

Pretty quiet on the legislation front from a family law point of view.

On 31 July 2014 all of Practice Direction 27A - Family Proceedings: Court Bundles  came into force. Parts of paras 4.1, 5.1 and 5.3 were not previously in force – these are the ones about the content and format of bundles (ie limiting the bundle to just one lever arch file unless the court directs otherwise).

Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 came into force on 1 September – this is the part that deals with Special Educational Needs.

There have been some other minor statutory instruments – see the Legislation and Guidance part of our website here.

Cases

For all the cases that came out over the summer, see the judgments part of our website here. Some of the key cases are listed below:

Legal aid funding: Q v Q; Re B; Re C [2014] EWFC 31. Case summary and full judgment available here. See also Lucy Reed and Judi Evan's article, 'The President’s judgment in Q v Q, Re B (A Child) and Re C (A Child) [2014] EWFC 31 – thinking through the implications'.

Reporting restrictions:  Cooper-Hohn v Hohn [2014] EWHC 2314 (Fam). Case summary and full judgment available here.

Court of Protection, post Cheshire West: Re X and Others (Deprivation of Liberty) [2014] EWCOP 25. The full judgment, including the 25 question Annex, is available to download here. See also Jess Flanagan's article, 'Court authorised Deprivations of Liberty (DoL) in a post-Cheshire West world'.  

Other news

The Child Maintenance Service brought in charges for using the service. See this article.

Also worth reading is the article detailing the MoJ statistics that only four family law applications for exceptional case funding have been granted between April and June 2014.

So there we go, summer is over and we’re back at the coal face of family law feeling refreshed(!). Looking ahead there will be plenty of family law developments to keep us busy, especially with the Family Procedure Rule Committee meeting in October to discuss changes to the rules stemming from the reports released this summer. Also in October is the Family Law Conference which, as well as featuring a host of distinguished speakers also features the best pudding one of our team has ever tasted - who needs the beach when you’ve got family law and puddings?

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The website image has been kindly reproduced from Eric Savageunder the Creative Commons Licence.