Family

Family lawyers should scrap billing targets and develop a new business model, a senior practitioner has said, while criticising the failure to continue pushing collaborative law.

A solicitor who entered into a damages-based agreement with a family law client and pursued her for costs under it has been fined £10,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The barrister suspended from the innovative family law business she founded after being accused of making racist comments about the latest Royal baby has returned to work.

A Family Court judge has been highly critical of the “woeful conduct” of a solicitor in her own divorce dispute, describing her evidence as “elusive and evasive”.

A freelance solicitor has teamed up with a former KPMG partner to launch a divorce business that guarantees its fixed-fee quote for the whole process, including ancillary relief.

A “boutique life management service” is aiming to reduce the stress of divorce and bereavement by providing a holistic service including legal and financial advice.

Only half of family law professionals feel secure in their jobs right now, while a quarter are actively considering leaving the profession due to wellbeing concerns, major research has found.

Immigration and civil litigation were the two areas of legal practice hit hardest by the pandemic last year, with private client and family law “insulated” from the impact, new research has found.

A lawtech start-up aiming to improve communication between family lawyers and their clients has explained how its product could in time help identify cases involving coercive control.

A barrister who co-founded a groundbreaking business that allows separating couples to obtain advice from a single legal expert at any point in the process, has won a £50,000 Women in Innovation award.

It is fair to say that there has, for many years, been a “difference of opinion” between the law governing personal insolvency and matrimonial law with each “side” believing that they are right and should take precedence. The principal, sometimes conflicting, legislation is covered in the Insolvency Act 1986 and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. However, the differing courts can and will give wide discretion when determining whether and how a married couple’s assets are to be divided.

A solicitor who led a client to believe he was divorced after she falsified a decree absolute has been struck off. She also admitted having the client pay her in cash, rather than pay her firm.

While the criminal courts in particular have struggled to cope with the impact of the pandemic, the family system seems to have fared somewhat better.

The president of the Family Division has told judges and lawyers to stop the increasing practice of holding virtual hearings outside of normal court hours, citing wellbeing concerns.

Family lawyers should be forced to follow good practice to protect children from “acrimonious legal representation”, and should embrace multi-disciplinary practice, a major report has concluded.