Pink Tape

a blog from the family bar

Lib Dem Contact Proposals

A colleague emails: …When looking through the LibDem manifesto this week, I noticed an express commitment, buried deep in the document at page 52, which may be of some interest (and reads, as follows)…. “The Liberal Democrats will “introduce a default contact arragangement, which would divide the child’s time between their two parents in the [...]

Just as you thought it was safe to go back in the courtroom…

The snappily titled and easy to read Children Schools and Families Act 2010 has landed on our virtual desks. Not yet in force owing to the impending election (‘What election?’ I hear you say) the Bill made it through ‘wash-up’ and received Royal Assent only moments before Parliament was dissolved, to gasps of relief all [...]

Wall LJ to be Appointed President of Family Division

Further to my previous post Lord Justice Wall is indeed to be appointed as President of the Family Division, taking over from Mark Potter on a date yet to be confirmed. POSTSCRIPT: See this extract from Hansard for no explanation at all regarding the delay in the announcement (hat tip to Brick, whose comment on [...]

Tear Down The Wall…

Charon QC is right. I have to comment on Jack Straw’s apparent reluctance to appoint Lord Justice Wall as the new President of the Family Division, reported on here by The Times. It is difficult to think of any reason for Mr Straw’s request that the appointment panel reconsider other than Wall LJ’s willingness to [...]

Barrister Facing Misconduct Charges For Graduated Fee Claim

I’m not going to comment on this news story in the Telegraph other than to say that: 1 The professional misconduct proceedings appear to be ongoing so we don’t know if the charges will be made out and 2 If true this does not reflect well on the bar and plays into the hands of [...]

Reformed Meat

So the Government has published its Families & Relationships Green Paper in which it proposes a fundamental review of the Family Justice System and a number of other reforms. Like John Bolch at Family Lore I’m not sure what this really adds up to. There are a number of press releases from the relevant departments: [...]

Soundbitten

In June I posted a short entry on the family law week blog about some research commissioned by solicitors Mischcon De Reya into the impact of the Children Act 1989 on children who had been involved in proceedings in the 20 years since its implementation. My source was a press release from the solicitors’ firm, summarising [...]

CAFCASS Judicial Review

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I’m only surprised it wasn’t sooner – mutterings about this petered out some months ago on the issue of the President’s interim Guidance on managing the CAFCASS crisis. But now a firm of solicitors acting for a child involved in proceedings have secured public funding to launch [...]

Lawyers Represented

I’ve been browsing newspapers and recent judgments this evening (yes, for fun on a Friday night). Lawyers don’t come out of it too well so far: . At the bar we have reports of a £34,000,000 discrimination claim by one barrister against three QCs and a senior clerk. In a story that resembles stereotypical ideas [...]

Family Legal Aid – The Fat Lady Sings

The Government announced its decision in respect of the family legal aid fee reforms on Wednesday this week. As a result of me seeming to have to do ever increasing amounts of work just to bring in the same amount of money I have not been able to look at the announcement in detail or to post anything [...]

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