Family Justice Minister Simon Hughes has promised action on the problem of the growing numbers of litigants in person in our courts, following the legal aid cuts last year. Speaking at the Liberal Democrat party conference he said that he had persuaded colleagues at the Ministry of Justice to find a solution to the increasing…
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The Barder principle provides for an order of the Court to be set aside or appealed outside of the usual time limits if certain criteria apply. Where did the Barder principle come from? The principle comes from the sad case of Barder v Barder in 1987 in which an order was successfully appealed out of…
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Are remote family courts really horribly cruel? Yesterday (4 June 2020), the BBC reported that remote hearing for family courts are ‘horribly cruel’. Since lockdown began, family hearings have been taking place remotely either via telephone or video link. In fact, from 23 March to 6 April, audio hearings across all courts and tribunals in […] More
30 April 2020 Yesterday, Freddy McConnell lost his latest legal bid to be registered on the birth certificate as the father not the mother as the Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal. Freddy was appealing against a decision made by a High Court judge that a person who carries and gives birth to a baby […] More
Family law news: It has been a week quite unlike any that most of us have experienced in our lives. Our liberties have been restricted in a way that would have been unimaginable only weeks ago. And this could just be the beginning of a very long haul. At a time like this family law […] More
I am reminded of the title of the seventeenth-century ballad The World Turned Upside Down. Following the daily news, it seems as if all the old certainties have been swept away by a small infectious agent that replicates inside the living cells of an organism. It is, of course, true that the Coronavirus will change […] More
In a desperately awful week for news generally, here are my choices for the top family law stories: Court of Appeal family cases to be live-streamed Family hearings at the Court of Appeal are to be live-streamed, under a joint initiative by the judiciary and government to boost transparency in the justice system. The initiative […] More
A serious topic Are family courts biased? First of all, apologies if you feel that the title of this post is somewhat flippant. I do understand that this is a serious topic and that many people have very strong feelings upon it. In both directions. But I still feel that the title is appropriate, as […] More
