In his 18th View from the President’s Chambers, Sir James Munby has set out his vision of what needs to be done in respect of the determination of financial remedies. He considers that procedural justice will be bettered by the appointment of specialist judges to the Financial Remedies Court (FRC) and by a process of…
A Russian billionaire has appealed a decision that he pay his wife £453 million, as part of their divorce. It is believed that this is the largest award ever made in the English courts. The court found that the wife’s claim totalled 41.5 % of the marital assets, which was considered fair and just in…
New rules for recording domestic violence published in the journal Criminology & Criminal Justice argues that multiple incidents as serious as grievous bodily harm would be lumped together under the umbrella of one offence under the Domestic Abuse Bill. The Home Office said that “We will introduce a landmark Domestic Abuse Bill to protect and…
The presenter, who co-hosts several shows with Declan Donnelly including I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here and Britain’s Got Talent, released a statement, asking for privacy “for both himself, Lisa and their immediate families”. The couple met in 1994 when they were performing as singers on the Smash Hits tour in Newcastle. Lisa…
Changes to evidence requirements in private family law disputes came into effect on 8 January 2018. There will no longer be a time limit on abuse evidence, which previously stood at five years. Additionally, the range of documents accepted as evidence of abuse has been widened to include statements from domestic violence support organisations and…
Latest statistics released by the Ministry of Justice show that the average time for a care or supervision case to reach first disposal, i.e for the court to decide how to deal with a case, was 28 weeks in July to September 2017 There were 65,247 new cases started in family courts in July to…
A family court judge has drawn the 19-year marriage of former footballer Jamie Redknapp and his pop singer wife Louise to a close. Judge Ian Mulkis granted a divorce decree at a hearing in the Central Family Court in London. Neither party attended the hearing. The judge granted a decree nisi – a marriage formally…
On 1 December 2017 the President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, released a circular stating that he is proposing to pilot the Financial Remedies Court (FRC) concept in London, the West Midlands and South-East Wales. The pilot with start in February 2018. He envisages that further pilots will follow quite shortly. Initially the…
Dancers Kevin and Karen Clifton on the popular BBC programme Strictly Come Dancing are barely speaking to each other and are on the brink of divorce, show insiders claim. The news comes after Karen Clifton was spotted with her rumoured boyfriend in London. The couple has been married for two years. Advice on separation At…
A transgender woman, referred to as J, who left a tight-knit ultra-Orthodox Jewish community to embark on a new life as a woman has taken her case to be allowed access to her five children to the Court of Appeal. She was challenging a ruling that the children risked greater psychological harm by being ostracised…