Thursday July 28, 2011 at 10:00am
A fairly well-populated list of leading family law luminaries put their names to a letter published in the Times a few weeks ago discussing the proposed changes to provision of Legal Aid. I say “discussing” but in truth they were fairly scathing at how proposed reforms seem to be steamrollering through despite widespread objections expressed in response to the consultation process.
The letter expressing disappointment that the Legal Aid changes are still going through unchang....
Monday July 25, 2011 at 9:30am
It is interesting how the same issue can provoke two completely different views. Ask Murdoch and Brooks, or Cameron and Miliband for that matter. Because hacking has eclipsed almost everything else in the news for the past week, some other issues have suffered from a lack of coverage as a result. The famine in Somalia is one. The badger cull is another.
I would have expected comments by leading judge Sir Paul Coleridge to have grabbed a few more headlines (not for the first time) too, ....
Thursday July 21, 2011 at 10:00am
As the phrase goes, there is no instruction book for being a parent. There are some fairly obvious dos and don’ts but for the most part, you learn as you go along and you don’t always get it right. So I am struggling to see why those behind the Family Justice Review think that issuing a leaflet to all new parents giving them pointers on what being a parent means is a good thing. At best, it seems a little desperate to conclude from a far-reaching review of how the legal system deals ....
Monday July 18, 2011 at 10:00am
Katie Price appears to have made it very clear that she will not marry again. This revelation came on the same day as other reports which suggested she would wed Argentine lover Leandro Penna “at some point”. Not so clear then. I am less worried about clarity on her love life and future intentions though as I am with her not wanting to get married again “because it is too expensive”. I take it she is not just referring to the cost of extravagant receptions grand enough to....
Thursday July 14, 2011 at 10:00am
I want to come back to an issue that I touched on last week. After mentioning it in passing, I think it deserves more of an airing. The draft Family Justice Review proposals suggest greater use of IT and technology to improve services. This is a no-brainer to me. Having founded a
family law firm working with a model of using technology to improve our service to clients, I honestly can’t see why this hasn’t been looked at before now. We live in a fast-paced society with ever increasin....
Monday July 11, 2011 at 10:00am
More and more children are born out of wedlock. Figures from the ONS show that in 2008, the number of births inside marriage was 374,283, while the figure for outside was 312,804. It won’t be long before more youngsters have unmarried parents at the start of their life than those whose parents have tied the knot.
This is causing growing concern in some sectors of society, with John Ermisch, of the Institute for Social and Economic Research telling the Daily Mail: 'The rise in births ou....
Thursday July 7, 2011 at 10:00am
I think it is fair to say that over the course of your life you will go to a fair few weddings. Many, if not most, will be fantastic occasions for all the right reasons. Others will be a bit of a bore. If I was a betting man, I would put money on the marriage of Freddie Bourne and Heidi Withers not falling into the latter category. It should be interesting, shouldn’t it?
This, of course, is the couple who have hit the headlines in the last week or so after Freddie’s mother Caroly....
Monday July 4, 2011 at 10:00am
I officially submitted my response to the Family Justice Review this week. This, of course, is the long running review of all legal procedures relating to family law. I have mentioned many points on this in previous blogs (and I’m sure I’ll return to them in future ones!), but as with most things it is a mix of good and bad. I agree with a more child-focused approach, but believe there is an awful lot that still needs to be done on the administration and management front to bring the....