View from the Foot of the Tower: Split hearings - the beginning of the end, or the end of the middle?

The Court of Appeal have given two judgments in 2014 which indicate something of a sea-change in the way the higher Courts view split hearings or finding of fact hearings.

Neither case was specifically dealing with the issue of whether there should be a split hearing as part of the appeal but both gave a clear message about a direction of travel.

In the first Re S (Split Hearing) [2014] EWCA Civ 25 [2014] 2 FLR (forthcoming and reported at April [2014] Fam Law 429) Ryder LJ said this (emphasis added):

'[27] It is by no means clear why it was thought appropriate to have a "split hearing" where discrete facts are severed off from their welfare context. Unless the basis for such a decision is reasoned so that the inevitable delay is justified it will be wrong in principle in public law children proceedings. Even where it is asserted that delay will not...

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