Hayley Trim's Analysis: The Government's response to the Family Justice Review – What happens now?

 The Government has accepted most of the proposals put forward in the Family Justice Review (FJR) although unsurprisingly there is a degree of caution where the proposals have major cost consequences. There is an expressed commitment is to implement change as quickly as possible and to table legislation and put in place preparatory measures for more long terms aims. The full response can be found here. I have drawn out a few observations below.

Private law

The headline as far as the papers are concerned is the Government's departure from the recommendation of the FJR that there should not be a statutory presumption of shared parenting. The Government is explicit that the child's needs will remain paramount but its terminology varies at different parts of the response. At one stage it says "the Government believes that there should be a legislative statement of the importance of children having an...

Read the full article here.