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    A holiday season in family law: legal aid cuts, domestic violence deaths and civil partnerships for all

    Peace on Earth, but not for family law One might reasonably expect the holiday season in family law to provide some much-needed relief from the continual torrent of family law news. However, anyone with such an expectation will have been sorely disappointed this holiday season just gone. Three major stories broke between Christmas and the […] More

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    Family law statistics round up a week in family law for 2019

    Family law statistics: As I reported here, the Ministry of Justice has published quarterly statistics on the work of the Family Court, for July to September 2019. The highlights included that the statistics showed an increase in the number of cases starting and an increase in the number of cases disposed of in the family […] More

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    McKenzie Friends: Study highlights the perils of unqualified advice

    McKenzie friends Biased advice  As I mentioned here on Friday, Dr Tatiana Tkacukova, Senior Lecturer in English Language at Birmingham City University and Professor Hilary Sommerlad, Leeds Law School, have carried out a study assessing the quality of advice handed out by advisors on online forums and social media platforms. It does not make particularly happy reading, finding “that online advisors […] More

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    Not much good news in the latest family court statistics

    Latest family court statistics The Ministry of Justice (‘MoJ’) has published its latest set of quarterly statistics on the work of the Family Court, for July to September 2019. And they don’t exactly make cheerful reading. Amongst the headlines are: an increase in the workload of the Family Court, care proceedings taking longer, and fewer […] More

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    A week in family law: adoption rates down, abuse and bad advice

    Adoption rates down Statistics for looked after children in England, for the year ending 31st of March 2019, have been published by the Department for Education. The statistics show that the number of children looked after by local authorities in England increased by 4% since 2018 to 78,150 – continuing increases seen in recent years. […] More