News & Blog

Latest divorce statistics published The Office for National Statistics (‘ONS’) has published its latest statistics for divorces in England and Wales, for the year 2019. The main points were: 1. That there were 107,599 divorces of opposite-sex couples in 2019, increasing by 18.4% from 90,871 in 2018 The ONS states that the scale of this […]

Guidance on protection of domestic abuse victims in remote hearings The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, has published guidance on the need to protect victims of domestic abuse in remote and hybrid court hearings. Remote hearings, where all parties take part via telephone or video link, and hybrid hearings, where some parties […]

Report on Medical Experts in the Family Courts A report has been published on the subject of medical expert witnesses in the family courts. The report was commissioned by the President of the Family Division Sir Andrew McFarlane in 2018 in response to concerns over shortages of medical experts prepared to be involved in family […]

New survey into the operation of remote hearings The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, which observes and reports upon the workings of the family justice system, has undertaken a new survey into the operation of remote court hearings. Remote hearings, via telephone or video link, have been widely adopted in the family court in response to […]