Knowledge and resources

New pilot projects aim to ensure that the operation of the family courts is open to scrutiny.

Resolution is an organisation of 6,500 family lawyers and other family justice professionals in England and Wales, who believe in a constructive, non-confrontational approach to family law matters. Resolution also campaigns for better laws and better support for families and children undergoing family change.  Our members, and the couples and families they work with, are regular users of the family courts.

In the second of a two-part article on how grandparents can be brought into when parental issues have arisen, we focus here on public law proceedings and the details of child arrangements order and special guardianship orders.

Hearings in the Family Court are increasingly being held remotely by telephone or on video conferencing software. This guide is designed to help you through the process and includes helpful information on how to prepare for the hearing, how to join a hearing and what to do during the hearing.

The President of the Family division has asked us to share this guidance on PDF bundles.

In this article for The Review David Burrows takes a look at the case law resulting from the period February to March 2020.

The fallout from the controversial judgment in F v H and what it will mean for judicial training. In this article for The Review Anna-Laura Lock and Selena Arbe-Barnes take a look at this new situation.

Practitioners are generally encouraged to use the online platforms as much as possible for finance consent orders applications, and for issuing contested finance applications where contested application falls within the jurisdiction area of one of the courts listed below.

With Covid-19 shifting cases overnight to digital-only, there is an urgent need to consider transparency issues, as well as ensuring our clients are not being left behind in the new processes.

The Central Family Court has issued a notice regarding financial remedy work covering the period from May - June 2020 and made clear they want online platforms to be used wherever possible throughout the Covid-19 outbreak.

The full notice can be downloaded on this page and we've highlighted the two sections particularly useful for members regarding;

- Directions in respect of non-urgent hearings and
- New applications

This page also includes a list of FRC courts where online platforms can be used for finance consent orders and issuing contested finance applications.

Following Re TT in the last issue, we now have P (Transgender applicant for declaration of valid marriage) [2019]: a cautionary tale to ensure that a gender recognition certificate is obtained.

A court-appointed receiver is a fairly draconian step, but is worth considering as one possible strategy for an unco-operative ex-spouse.

Sadly, it is not an uncommon scenario: following hotly contested divorce proceedings an order is made that requires one spouse to make financial payments over a period of months or years to the other.

In November 2019 Mrs Justice Knowles delivered a further judgment in the long-running Akhmedova v Akhmedov litigation ([2019] EWHC 3140). The judgment is a helpful summary of the law in relation to the use of illegitimately obtained documents and the circumstances in which a prima facie claim to privilege can be overridden.

In this article we will explore the background to the case, the facts and issues that arose for determination by Knowles J, the law on illegitimately obtained documents and their use in financial remedy proceedings, the law on privilege, the fraud/iniquity exception to privilege, and the decision in this instalment of Akhmedova v Akhmedov. We will finish by providing some practical guidance for practitioners.

The aim of this document is to identify clearly the current problems which arise from the urgent need to move to a default position of remote hearings, to identify potential solutions to those problems and to set out operational protocols to govern the position whilst further solutions are being arrived at.

The president of the family division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has issued the following guidance which should be followed with immediate effect by all levels of the Family Court and in the High Court Family Division.