The Coronavirus Act 2020 has put a hold on any existing residential possession proceedings for a period of 90 days and extended the notice period required as a precursor for any new residential possession to three months (section 81 of the Act and Practice Direction 51Z) and removed the right of re-entry or forfeiture for … Continue reading
CAFCASS A County Council v Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) [2019] EWHC 2369 (Fam) Re S [2020] EWHC 217 (Fam) Care proceedings which had originated from a private law dispute between the mother and the fathers of her children. The mother alleged that the fathers had abused their children during contact. … Continue reading
Preparing for A Mediation Appointment As time progresses mediation is being utilised more and more as a result of the significant benefits it provides to parties, including the ability to resolve disputes more quickly and less expensively than court proceedings. Tactics and advocacy utilised during mediation appointments vary greatly between representatives and indeed different disputes … Continue reading
In the case of XW v XH [2019] EWCA Civ 2262 the Court of Appeal overturned a decision made by Baker J (as he then was) in 2017 that the husband (H) should retain the majority of the financial resources partly due to his “special contribution” in a case where H was a ‘breadwinner’ and … Continue reading
I recently represented a claimant defending an application to set aside default judgment. The claimant obtained default judgment for a sum in the region of £2,000 in September 2018 and sought to enforce the judgment in January 2019. The defendant applied to set aside the default judgment in November 2019. The defendant submitted that they … Continue reading
Becket Chambers are continuing to assess the developing situation in relation to Covid-19. We are reviewing the situation daily and will continue to take advice and follow guidance from the Government, Bar Standards Board and Bar Council. All of our systems are cloud based, and as such our clerking team are able to work remotely … Continue reading
The Occupier’s Liability Act 1957 (“1957 Act”) The 1957 Act was enacted to regulate the duty of care which an occupier of premises owes to its visitors. The occupier owes the same duty of care to all its visitors, except in so far as the duty may be extended, restricted, modified or excluded in some … Continue reading
The case of Re A (Children) (Parental Alienation) 2019 EWFC demonstrates clearly the shortcomings of the Family Court to ensure that all children, wherever possible, enjoy a relationship with both of his or her parents. The position of the courts with regard to ordering no direct contact with the absent parent, is that it is … Continue reading
Why, you may be wondering, would a barrister with 28 years’ experience of civil litigation and the adversarial process want to talk about mediation? Surely the whole purpose of barristers, and indeed lawyers, is to let people have their day in court and to demolish the “other side”? The fact of the matter is that … Continue reading
The purpose of this article is to (a) review the guidance set out by the Court of Appeal in the case of Imerman v Tchenguiz and others; Imerman v Imerman [2011] 1 All ER 555 which was heard on the 10th to 12 of May 2010, judgement being handed down on the 29th of July … Continue reading
CAFCASS A County Council v Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) [2019] EWHC 2369 (Fam) Keehan J Judgment: 20th September 2019 This was a public law case which may have relevance in private law proceedings. As part of the threshold grounds, the LA sought a finding that the father had sexually … Continue reading
Hall v Jagger; Akhter v Khan: void, voidable and non- marriages. In 1999, Jerry Hall and Mick Jagger separated and in a move heralding a long and acrimonious legal battle, Jagger sensationally released a public statement saying that he would be contesting Jerry Hall’s petition for divorce on the grounds that he and Jerry Hall … Continue reading
In December 2019 Ms. Justice Russell DBE heard an appeal from a fact-finding hearing that took place in private law Children Act proceedings at the Central Family Court in London in the summer of 2019. Her judgement was given in January 2020 and is reported as JH v. MF [2020] EWHC 86 (Fam). The case … Continue reading
This article explores the issue of domestic abuse in the appeal of Re H v F [2020]. This article should be read in conjunction with Lavinia Glover’s article which analyses the issue of special measures when giving evidence within the same case. JH (Appellant) and MF (Respondent) were 17 years old and 23 years old … Continue reading
We are delighted to welcome Linda Glover who has joined the clerking team as 2nd Junior Clerk.
This article explores the approach a court should take in relation to vulnerable witnesses, in particular those that have experienced domestic abuse. The recent case of H v F [2020] EWHC 86 (Fam) demonstrates that a case will be successful on appeal if the correct procedures are not complied with. Re H v F [2020] … Continue reading
The recent case of AR v ML [2019] EWFC 56 is a cautionary tale against adducing further evidence at a late stage in an attempt to have the last say within financial remedy proceedings. This case centred around the wife’s application for financial remedy arising out of her marriage to the husband. The matter proceeded to a … Continue reading
We are pleased to welcome Allen Worwood who started pupillage on 3rd February 2020.
Financial remedy lawyers are familiar with the Form P1 Pension Sharing Annex under section 24B of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. It records the instructions for how to share a party’s pension and who is to bear the cost, and also contains the parties’ details. It is approved by the court and sent to pension … Continue reading
Early childhood deprivation through neglect and adversity is associated with alterations in the brain structure as adults, despite environmental enrichment in intervening years, according to an article published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) on 7.1.2020. The research, carried out by King’s College London, examined the MRI data … Continue reading
This article explores the recent judgment in Re A (Children) (Parental alienation) [2019] EWFC. Re A is a long, drawn out case involving a mother’s repeated inability to promote the children’s relationship with their father. Professionals concluded that she had at best “allowed the demonisation of the father and, at worst, actively encouraged this demonisation … Continue reading
This article discusses a recent case whereby the court found that as the Defendant’s employee had failed to report an issue with a passenger lift, they had not acted reasonably. Therefore, the Defendant had been in breach of s2 of the Occupiers Liability Act 1957. The Background The Claimant had been staying at one of … Continue reading
Faced with the competing claims of transparency and privacy, free speech and family life, family law will always incline towards the latter. Its first instincts are protective, guarding the intimacies and lives of its own subject families and, particularly, its children.[1] First and foremost, family proceedings are and remain private matters. This fundamental principle holds … Continue reading
The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) provide for fixed costs in certain elements of civil proceedings, including Small Claims, Fast Track hearings, ‘Stage 3’ hearings and possession claims. This means that any costs applied for that are not those within the fixed costs regimes are unlikely to be awarded by the Court, unless certain factors apply. … Continue reading