The competition watchdog has announced an investigation into businesses that offer legal services, such as online divorces and will writing. The Competition & Markets Authority has announced that it will consider whether these businesses are complying with consumer protection law, … read more
Ignore the court at your peril
In family cases, it is not unusual for people to simply ignore attempts to resolve matters. People ignore letters from their ex’s solicitor, perhaps in the hope that if they don’t respond, the ex will just give up. Some people … read more
Death and divorce
The Supreme Court has confirmed that if a spouse dies before divorcing financial proceedings are concluded, then that claim dies with them and the surviving spouse cannot continue with the claim. At the same time, the Supreme Court has indicated … read more
Should mediation be made compulsory?
The Family Court has been suffering from appalling delays for years. In an attempt to tackle this problem, the government is considering making mediation compulsory. One of the problems is that far too many people go to court when they … read more
Justice delayed is justice denied.
We all now live in a world where we are connected by technology more than ever before. And yet, communicating with the Family Court has never been more difficult. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, if I … read more
What is the point in making people wait for a divorce?
The new no-fault divorce procedure introduced in April 2022 contains a provision which seems quite pointless. Once a divorce application has been issued by the Family Court, the applicant must then wait for a period of 20 weeks before he … read more
The difference between solicitors and barristers
Lay people often struggle to understand the difference between different types of lawyer. All solicitors are lawyers, not all lawyers are solicitors. Other lawyers may be barristers, legal executives, licensed conveyancers or legally unqualified paralegals. Magistrates (also known as justices … read more
Will AI replace judges and lawyers?
The arrival of AI may be about the revolutionise our lives. Claims are made that programmes such as ChatGPT and Bard will fundamentally change our world as much as the industrial revolution and the IT revolution did. Sceptics claim that … read more
Happy 1st birthday no-fault divorce
It is now a year since no-fault divorce was first introduced in England and Wales, consigning the old fault-based system to history. Since 6 April 2022, no divorce petitions alleging adultery, behaviour, desertion, two years’ separation with consent or five … read more
Never, ever, say custody
One of the downsides of being a solicitor is that we are professionally trained to nit-pick. In particular, one of the things that sets our teeth on edge is inaccurate legal terminology. It is excusable for lay people to get … read more