Family

A law firm was negligent in failing to prepare for a three-day hearing or instruct counsel for it, a Family Court judge has ruled in making a wasted costs order.

“Substantial proportions” of divorcees do not understand the law on how assets are split, even if they used a lawyer, the first research of its kind has found.

For family mediation week in January, the Family Mediation Council suggested making a pledge. Mine was to the FMC itself: to make the accreditation process more straightforward.

The Family Court has rejected a divorcing husband’s claim that his wife’s solicitors are conflicted out of acting for her because of past work they did for the couple.

An exasperated Family Court judge has adjourned a final hearing, saying the case was in such a “disordered and chaotic state that it is simply impossible to proceed in a fair way”.

Awareness of family mediation as an alternative to legal advice is not matched by action, with nearly half of people saying their first professional port of call in a divorce would be a lawyer.

The Family Court has ordered a law firm to pay 35% of a father’s costs for its “improper, unreasonable and negligent acts”, with their client ordered to pay the rest.

Divorce applications submitted before they should have been and wrongly allowed to proceed due to an error in the courts’ IT system are voidable – but not void, the High Court has ruled.

An online service specialising in uncontested divorces has become an alternative business structure regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

The largest family law firm in the country is to pilot an unbundled service and offer clients more holistic support as part of a move to widen the current offering, its executive chairman has revealed.