Knowledge and resources

ND (by her litigation friend KW) v GD [2021] EWFC 53 saw the court – in circumstances of a party’s declining health – assess the appropriateness of a clean break, the factors to taken into account when assessing needs, and the source of the family wealth.

16 February 1984: Torvill and Dean had just won gold at the Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Relax” was continuing its five-week reign at number one. The then Attorney-General Sir Michael Havers was also addressing the Commons as to what would become Part III of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act (MFPA).

Mostyn J has raised the spectre of a Supreme Court reconsideration of financial claims following the death of a party.

Re H-N & ors provides a very useful steer on a number of significant issues in children proceedings where allegations of domestic abuse are made.

As international and post-Brexit issues become ever more important for family practitioners, those who missed this workshop at the National Conference may well wish to seek it out on the members website. Resolution’s International Committee cantered through the key issues: divorce and finances jurisdiction/stays, pre-marital agreements, recognition and enforcement issues, children jurisdiction and international service.

Two recent cases have seen the courts grapple with difficult issues concerning puberty blockers.

With the pandemic increasing the number of emails sent directly to judges, it is crucial to remember the rules and principles that apply in this area.

Karin Walker’s conference webinar ran through the wide variety of DR options now available and set out their respective merits.

Cultural and systemic change are needed in family dispute resolution workplaces if we are to tackle the wellbeing crisis.

The EDI Committee is working hard on a number of projects. These cast a spotlight on various aspects of EDI: the privileges that many of us as members have, as well as the additional challenges that many others of us have to manage, at times battle with, and at other times are able to celebrate. These additional challenges and privileges of course reflect those of the general public - our clients that we all do our best to assist in our professional lives.

The Nuffield report on changing court demographics makes fascinating reading. It proves, for example, that the court are now dealing with more challenging and complicated cases.

With the outbreak of Covid-19 many of you will not be at your offices to receive your printed copy of The Review but help is at hand. For every issue we will be publishing the articles here in the Knowledge and Resources section of our website as well as the pdf of the printed version.

A key theme of this year’s Resolution National Conference was wellbeing. We are all currently well aware of the additional strain that family lawyers are under at the moment due to increased workloads, juggling working from home with the office, and managing and working with our clients in these difficult and unprecedented times.

“Trauma does not just happen to other people - it happens to us, our friends and family and our neighbours. While humans are an extremely resilient species, able to rebound from relentless wars, family violence and man-made disasters, experiences like these inevitably leave traces: on our minds, our emotions and even our biology and immune systems. This matters not just to those who are directly affected, but to the people around them.”

This was an informal and thought-provoking workshop, run by Jo O’Sullivan, Remyhs Baker, Oscar Davies, Bridget Garrood and Stephen Lue. They took turns to provide a candid account of their individual experiences both in a work and personal context.

This interactive and thought-provoking workshop was run by Jacinta Gallant and Jo O’Sullivan. It started off with music to get everybody moving and get our brains into gear on a Monday afternoon.

Friday’s National Conference offerings included a presentation by Alan Larkin, “Only Connect: Staying relevant in a digital world”. I had not encountered Alan before. I came to realise he is an incredible but humble innovator. Somebody needs to publicise his contribution to our community.

I was delighted to have been able to attend so many great sessions during the week of Resolution’s National Conference this year. As an enthusiastic collaborative practitioner and arbitrator, I was keen to sign up to the session on the new collaborative participation agreement, hosted by Angela Lake-Carroll and Adele Ballantyne.

As family lawyers, we are used to referring parties to mediation, but it is rare for us to have insight into what actually goes on at those sessions and the importance of the conversations that take place there. Mary Raymont and Margaret Kelly-Edwards took the participants of this workshop, “The role of the lawyer in the mediation process”, swiftly into the world of role play, only too familiar to those who are qualified as mediators.