Access all stakeholders

The Family Justice Knowledge Hub. Sounds modern dunnit? It’s not really. It’s a newsletter in word format with a boxy design, which collates details of recent and current research bearing upon matters of family justice. Boxy but useful. Like a volvo. You can subscribe to it by emailing knowledgehub@justice.gsi.gov.uk. Not that you’d know because there [...]

Boxing Clever

I wasn’t planning on any Christmas blogging. There are better things to do, like drink sloe gin, eat vast amounts of all sorts of things, and play with the childrens’ new toys. But then my Xmas was intruded upon when a family law related “news” item wafted into my dreams when the radio alarm went [...]

Perspectives of young adults who experienced parental separation Study published

Sussex Law School will today publish a report on research by Emeritus Professor Jane Fortin and Dr Lesley Scanlan, of Sussex University and Joan Hunt, University of Oxford (here). The report is an empirical study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and looks at how the contact arrangements made by separating parents for their children affect children’s long-term [...]

Ryder’s Rider

I’m confuserated. First of all the ALC website reported Ryder’s apparent acknowledgment at the NAGALRO conference that the 26 week limit was only currently achievable in about 30% of cases. And then it disappeared. Except of course you can’t disappear something you’ve published on the internet “juslikethat”, Tommy Cooper stylee. Family Law Week had already [...]

Dr Dolittle I presume?

OR : Cooperative Parenting Government Response Well well well. Quel surprise. It’s option 1 chaps: presumption Addition to s1(2) before welfare checklist: In the circumstances mentioned in subsection (4)(a) or (4A) the court is to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that the welfare of the child concerned will be furthered by involvement in the [...]

As one door closes another opens

You might have presumed I would have done my consultation response on shared parenting ages ago. But that starting point would have been the wrong starting point. Had you taken all the circumstances into account it was not safe to assume that I would do so, because although it was likely I would have had [...]

Scandalous!

Who knew? “Scandalising the court” whatever that may be, may be no longer. The Law Commission are consulting about it (here). The consultation document, which I’ve scanned tonight, is really interesting reading (not quite interesting enough for me to finish it on a Friday night mind you), but my instinctive reaction is that the judiciary / [...]

Are you sure about this shared parenting malarky?

So Alan Beith, Chair of the Justice Select Committee and government advisor, has written to David Cameron asking him to reconsider government policy on shared parenting. The letter, sent last week to the PM, the Secretary of State for Justice, the Minister of State for Children and Families, and to the Parliamentary-Under Secretaries of State for [...]

Right of Access to Court File

I was asked an intriguing question the other day. One of those which at first blush seems as if it must have a straightforward answer, but on further enquiry proves tricky. And I’m not one that can rest whilst a good question is left unanswered. So…I might as well share the fruits of my labour. [...]

As One Door Closes…

As the consultation on same sex marriage closes another opens : shared parenting. We just can’t agree about anything to do with the shape of families, can we? Thankfully, @suesspiciousmin has been swift in summarising the consultation on shared parenting in his post (Co-op (Good with Kids) on the Suesspicious Minds blog - say it in a [...]