Pink Tape

a blog from the family bar

Judge Dread – The Future

The Family Justice Review is calling for written evidence by the end of September (see here). Anyone who is considering submitting a response should consider this: at the recent oral evidence session I attended with other lawyers, the panel were asking serious and reaching questions about the extent to which the courts needed to be [...]

Musings on new fangled equality

Just a thought. I’m not trying to be controversial or nuffing. But it did occur to me today that whilst the clamour for a presumption of equal parenting is all well and good (I agree its a solution that should be given serious consideration in most cases, but not that this should be elevated to [...]

Lightning Fast Lawyers

40 minutes apparently. That’s the time it takes to get to and from Bath County Court from chambers in Bristol. Or at least my clerks tell me (to snorts of derision from me) that this is all the LSC say I can claim. There is a list that tells them so. Lets assume that we [...]

Shut Your Face(book)

Dear (Imaginary*) Client, Please read, digest and act promptly upon this article in The Guardian which tells you how to appropriately protect your privacy on Facebook. I reserve the right to sack you forthwith** should it appear that evidence of any of the following information has made its way to court as a result of [...]

Manners Maketh a Lawyer

I had a particularly taxing day at court recently. My opponent solicitor and I did not – ahem – gel. My attempts to engage in negotiation met with much dramatic huffing and flinging about of the word ‘nonsense’, escalating to swearing and door slamming of a most juvenile kind. You know constructive dialogue is at [...]

Heads and Eyes Rolling

Is there any part of the family justice system not being adversely affected by a lack of resources? . A quite astonishing experience recently in a Family Proceedings Court: already delayed care proceedings were being re-listed for final hearing and all advocates and all parties were united in their view that the case required a [...]

Allocate this

I’ve been thinking about blame lately. You lose count in this job of the number of people you meet who don’t want to take responsibility for their own actions. Husband blames wife (and vice versa) or the new boyfriend, client blames lawyer, social worker, child, the system – for failed relationships, for poor parenting, for [...]

Not Rising to the Challenge

You dare me to publish your comments, but they are full of private information about your child and the proceedings surrounding his care. I could not publish them if I wanted to. You dare me to publish your comments, but they are full of material that is probably defamatory. I cannot publish them. You dare [...]

A bit Woolley…

A couple of tweets from @woolleyandco alerted me to some interesting posts on their blog: Andrew Woolley has it spot on about Baroness Deech’s curiously reality-detached approach to humiliating divorce settlements (I think she means demeaning, but anyway). “You say humiliating, I say equality…”. Doesn’t scan but you get the point. And as for the [...]

Another Fine Mess

Yesterday I took a breather between lever arch files to chat with colleagues about the new fee regime that we will be paid under from next October. Some of the fees are clearly better than now, largely care work. For that I suspect we have the furore arising from the Baby P scandal to thank. [...]

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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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