We don’t need no Ed-ew-ca-shun

Earlier this week I spent a day on a Court of Protection course. Just as we were all entering a post lunch semi-vegative state, up strode Wall LJ to the podium. He is both President of the Family Division and of the Court of Protection. Readers of this blog may find his brief address interesting. [...]

What Kind of Debate Should We Be Having About Domestic Violence?

This post is a guest blog post written by Sarah Phillimore. Sarah is a family barrister with over 15 years of experience. She tweets as @SVPhillimore and this is her first foray into blogging. This post arose from a tweet from @change4victims calling for support for an e-petition entitled “review of access laws for domestic abusers”, subsequently retweeted by @womensaid. The petition [...]

Koo-ee! We’re over here love!

Where are all the feminist lawyers? Discuss. Kat Watson’s essay on the topic was posted on The F Word last week. I was alerted to it by a critical blog post in response written by another female lawyer type who had been irked by it (that post has now been removed hence no link). It [...]

Clare’s Law

Today the Guardian published a piece I wrote about the proposed Clare’s Law. You can read it here: Why Clare’s Law won’t prevent domestic violence  You might also like to read a rather more eloquent discussion of the same topic by Libby Brooks, also in the Guardian: ‘Clare’s law’ offers nothing but empty empowerment  Still haven’t [...]

The Narey Report: A Blueprint for the nation’s lost children?

The Narey Report was published early last week (5 July). You may not have read it because, unusually for a report which purports to be signally important in the development of government policy on matters of such public interest and importance as the permanent severing of the child : parent relationship, it is behind a [...]

Guest blog Post: Hunger 4 Justice

The post that follows is a guest blog post by Nick Langford. Nick is a regular commenter on this blog. He and I have disagreed about many things in the comments threads, but always (I think) in respectful if robust language. I am happy to extend the opportunity to Nick to write a one off [...]

Legal Aid Reform – Comment

A link to some more stuff I said elsewhere on the topic of legal aid reform, and more importantly to what some other people (including a not-so-anonymous blogger) said about legal aid reform: Falling on deaf ears, By Jean-Yves Gilg, Giles Peaker, Lucy Reed & Juliette Frangos

Trying To End Things

I’ve had two very different articles published today, both about attempts to end things: an article on the bringing to a close of children proceedings through the making of orders under s91(14) Children Act 1989: Section 91(14) Orders – A Never Ending Story? (Family Law Week), and an article on the attempt to bring an end [...]

Summary of Legal Aid Reforms to Family Law

Nearly Legal has provided an excellent summary of the legal aid reforms in respect of housing and other areas of law: Ask not for whom the bill tolls. Due to other commitments I have not been able to put together a full analysis of the Bill insofar as is relates to family law. That will [...]

Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill Published

The Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPOB for not-so-short?) was published earlier today. And then rapidly un-published. However, the ever excellent ilegal was quick off the mark and had saved it before it was magicked away again. You can read the bill here. From a quick whizz through insofar as it is relevant to [...]