Family

A law firm that tried to change its head of family’s bonus scheme without notice and failed to promote her as agreed must pay her almost £13,000 for breach of contract and constructive dismissal.

The future of litigation funding in divorce cases – which new figures from law firms show mainly benefits women – is in the balance as the Court of Appeal hears a crucial appeal.

A law firm has had to take civil action against the father on the opposite side of a child contact dispute because of the abuse he has directed at it and the solicitor running the case.

An unbundled family law service aimed at people who cannot afford to instruct a solicitor has “reached a new market” and delivered very positive results, researchers have found.

Barristers working on private family law cases are facing “unrealistic” expectations to broker agreements between warring parents, two lawyer academics have argued.

A law firm that narrowed the scope of its retainer after a divorcing woman negotiated her own financial settlement was nonetheless negligent in failing to give her advice on the deal.

It is not the role of courts to act as “insurers of solicitors” who “overshoot, let alone dramatically overshoot” legal services payment orders, a Family Court judge has said.

Completion of the court modernisation programme has been pushed back again, this time to March 2024, it has emerged – in a blog, rather than a Ministry of Justice annoucement.

Plans to make mediation mandatory before a separating couple can go to court is likely to reduce demand for legal services providers, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.

A family court judge has described a case where the two parties racked up costs of £5.5m as “one of the most shameless pieces of litigation” he has ever seen.

A solicitor who failed to pass on to a client the £132,000 due to her from her divorce settlement – money the profession has now had to stump up – has been struck off.

Consumers of divorce and separation services “don’t care whether a business is regulated”, the co-founder of pioneering service amicable said this week.

Separating couples should “try almost anything” before turning to the courts, the president of the Family Division has said, arguing that there has “got to be a better way” to resolve child disputes in particular.

Women who have experienced divorce or separation and the menopause believe family lawyers and judges should have training on the issue so they can “factor it into their cases”.

Mediation should no longer be the focus of divorce information meetings and they should be run by “generalist” lawyers and social workers as well as mediators.