Doom and Gloom and very black Coffee

Just thought I’d pop in and say hi. I am still here, not-blogging away quietly. I’m freshly arrived back from completing the annual bar survey, which prompted all sorts of deep consideration of life and the future. To respond to the questions I had to tot up how many hours a week I work (don’t [...]

O-ver-load

You know that thing when the Daleks get a bit hot under the carapace and spin around in confused fashion before grinding to a smokey halt, toilet plunger wilting at a jaunty angle? That. That is the feel of those of us struggling to absorb the vast amounts of new guidance, update and direction. “All-ca-ses-must-be-com-ple-ted-in-twen-ty-six-weeks…You-must-com-ply.” [...]

Purely Economics

Today Margaret Thatcher was buried. I didn’t listen to the wall to wall coverage as I was in court, on a legal aid brief in the kind of case that would probably not attract legal aid if it commenced now (in fact there were dv issues, but I’m doubtful my client could have jumped the [...]

Oh Look, I’ve Started a Trend

It’s been a slow burn folks – Family Courts Without a Lawyer was published in 2011, and many were the perplexed looks and guffaws from colleagues at the bar back then. They thought I was nuts, some thought I was possibly mildly treacherous. But now it’s all the rage. It’s like Gangnam or Super Samurai [...]

Legal Aid Reprieve

Nope…Can’t do it. I had in mind a sort of black-humour April Fool : LASPO repealed, Jackson placed on hold, Theresa May and Abu Hamza go into shoewear business together – that sort of thing, But I’m not in the mood. No fluffy bunnies round here. Legal aid has been done in, and I worked [...]

Absolutely Transparent

Transparency in family justice is an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet – it ain’t going away. This week Christopher Booker wrote a piece in the Telegraph (bluntly titled “Australia’s scandal of forced adoption is happening here in Britain“) in which he drew a parallel between the forced adoptions in Australia, for which Prime [...]

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 [...]

A little help from my McKenzie Friend – might be frowned upon

I revisited the case of Re H (Children) [2012] EWCA Civ 1797 recently, having read a blog post about it on Suesspicious Minds entitled Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a McKenzie Friend? (Yes I know, my song title is inferior to his). As pointed out in that post its an authority which is not on [...]

What does “exceptional” mean in a post-LASPO world?

Some have speculated that once LASPO 2012 has been implemented on 1 April and pretty much everything falls out of scope there will be plenty of – erm – scope – for applications under the “exceptional cases” provisions (Legal aid cuts? What legal aid cuts? [2012] Fam Law 1267, Peter Graham Harris, Oxford Centre for [...]

Your Centre for Human Rights in Practice needs you!

Whether you are not-for-profit or private sector, if you work (or did recently work) in any of the following areas of law under public funding (legal aid) the Centre for Human Rights in Practice are asking you to complete this survey and and pass it to anyone else you know. It is fully anonymous and can only be [...]