The Office for National Statistics has published its first compendium of child abuse statistics, drawing on a range of data sources to improve understanding of the extent and circumstances of abuse in childhood. The statistics deal with child abuse in England and Wales, for the year ending March 2019. Amongst the main points are that […]

The Government has re-introduced the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Bill, which will bring in a system of no-fault divorce, to Parliament. The Bill was first introduced in June 2019 after a public consultation and is being brought before Parliament again following the General Election. The new law will remove the ‘blame game’ by allowing one […]

Speaking as guest editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, Baroness Hale, who will retire as President of the Supreme Court this week, has warned that cuts are causing “serious difficulty” to the justice system. She said: “I don’t think that anybody who has anything to do with the justice system of England and Wales could […]

Vulnerable people representing themselves in court are being given biased and misinformed advice by online legal advisors, new research has found. A study carried out by Dr Tatiana Tkacukova, Senior Lecturer in English Language at Birmingham City University and Professor Hilary Sommerlad, Leeds Law School, assessed the quality of advice handed out by advisors on […]

Sir Andrew McFarlane, the President of the Family Division, has called upon lawyers to help fund a support scheme for unrepresented litigants. The call came just days after the Support Through Court charity, which provides free support and guidance to unrepresented litigants, confirmed that it was closing four of its offices in court buildings around […]

Two important family law Bills have been lost, as a result of the calling of a General Election. The Domestic Abuse Bill was to introduce a comprehensive package of measures to tackle domestic abuse, including provisions prohibiting the cross-examination in court of an abuse victim by the alleged perpetrator of the abuse. The Divorce, Dissolution […]

A father has had to withdraw an application for contact with his children, after their mother alienated them against him. The court had tried to transfer residence of the children to the father, but the alienation had already become entrenched, and the children ran away. Giving judgment in the case His Honour Judge Wildblood QC […]

The Department for Work and Pensions has published its latest quarterly summary of statistics for the Child Support Agency (‘CSA’), for the period April to June 2019. The CSA was set up in 1993 and in 2012 the Child Maintenance Service (‘CMS’) was created to replace it. The closure of the CSA is progressing and […]

The latest figures for care applications and private law demand, for September 2019, have been published by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (‘Cafcass’), the organisation that looks after the interests of children involved in family proceedings. In that month the service received a total of 1,000 new care applications, 62 (5.8 […]

Happy birthday Ed from all your colleagues at Prince Family Law