Pink Tape

a blog from the family bar

Litigants in Person – the horror!

Nicola Williams & Co published a thoughtful article on Flawbord earlier this week about the difficulties caused by and to litigants in person through their inability to secure legal advice and representation: Horrendous. Amongst other things the article looks at publicly available stats on the numbers of cases, noting along the way that those published [...]

Thoughtful and Thought Provoking

A couple of pieces in the Guardian which are worth a read: here and here. No soundbites, just common sense and a thoughtful approach to the problems. The first, by a very sensible and knowledgeable family magistrate, almost makes me waver in my long held view that family cases are unsuitable for disposal in the [...]

CAFCASS – What to do?

Thank Goodness for that – the new(ish) President of the Family Division has decided not to renew the guidance and may scrap the duty guardian scheme. See this article extracting an interview reported fully in Family Affairs. On another note, a proposal to scrap CAFCASS and to reallocate it’s responsibilities to local authorities. Clearly something [...]

Official Slow-icitor

Yet another facet of the system is creaking under the caseload: I am reliably informed that the Official Solicitor has written to family law practitioners to inform them that his staff is unable to accept new instructions to act as a guardian ad litem or litigation friend without some delay. In recent months there has [...]

CAFCASS Chief Exec Subjected to Very Cross Examination

In a slightly maverick move District Judge Carron has enlisted the support of the media in trying to right the injustices caused by the failure of CAFCASS to keep up with demand for their services. The resulting article in today’s Times can be read here. Oh, you can raise an eyebrow at the notion of [...]

moving on

Just a thought about how often in intractable contact cases it is very difficult for parents to move on – not only because of the issues in the case themselves but because of the need to retain eligibility for legal aid – often a parent (typically a father) is unable to go out and look [...]

REPORT: Outcomes of applications to court for contact orders after parental separation or divorce

It has taken me some time to read this report in snatches over the last week. John Bolch has already posted about it, and The Times published an article recording just how ‘furious’ fathers rights campaigners are with it. . This report is a really interesting piece of work, although much of what it says [...]

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    A blog in which I ricochet from too serious to too flippant, and alternate between a bit clever, a bit interesting and a bit ranty: Pink Tape neatly functions as both a blog about family law and a therapeutic escape valve for me. >>more




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