
Blog
The Threat of Adverse Costs Orders in Financial Remedy Cases Has Just Got Higher – Peel J in HO v TL
Peel J’s substantive judgment in HO v TL [2023] EWFC 215 is a compelling masterclass in addressing principle, guidance and the clear disposal of a smorgasbord of financial remedy issues within a must-read 27-page judgment for matrimonial finance practitioners.
- Blog
- Costs
!26/01/2024 14:42
Calling All Undergraduates: Join the Financial Remedies Journal's Essay Competition for 2024
The editorial board of the Financial Remedies Journal is delighted to announce the launch of a new essay competition which is open to any undergraduate law or combined law student from a university in England and Wales.
- Blog
- Essay Competition
!25/01/2024 12:00
Why Become a QLR?
The Family Court has been long overdue for its equivalent of section 38 advocates in criminal proceedings. Essentially, an independent advocate to undertake cross-examination on behalf of a party in circumstances where the court has determined it is not appropriate for that party to cross-examine the witness themselves.
- Blog
- Qualified Legal Representative
!22/01/2024 19:01
The PAG2 Guide – What Has Changed?
The publication of the Pension Advisory Group (PAG2) guidance in December 2023 marked the end of another lengthy and significant piece of interdisciplinary work by experienced practitioners in the field of pensions on divorce. The aim of this piece is to focus just on the material changes in what is now referred to as the PAG2 guide.
- Blog
- Pensions on Divorce
!22/01/2024 11:43
The Unopposable Application for a Penal Notice
There are relatively few applications for a court order in financial remedy proceedings that cannot be opposed and which are bound to succeed. One is an application for a penal notice.
- Blog
- Penal Notices
!18/01/2024 17:00
When Is an Add-Back Not an Add-Back?
So-called ‘small money’ cases have historically been rarely published. However, the President’s Confidence and Confidentiality: Transparency in the Family Courts Report of 29 October 2021 and the subsequent reports of the TIG Anonymisation & Publication and Financial Remedies sub-groups (amongst others) have led to a welcome increase in such judgments. JN v GN [2023] EWFC 244 is one such decision and a good example of justice ‘at the coal face’.
- Blog
- Add-Backs
!15/01/2024 11:06
Guideline Hourly Rates on Costs
In H v GH [2023] EWFC 235 Simon Colton KC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, struck out a husband’s application to extend payment of a lump sum for two years. When he then proceeded to summarily assess the costs he raised with the parties the relevance, or not, in the Family Court, of the guideline hourly rates (GHR) published as part of the Guide to the Summary Assessment of Costs.
- Blog
- Guideline Hourly Rates
- Costs
!12/01/2024 11:25
The Use and Misuse of the Rubric in the Family Courts
In a familiar line of cases of which the first was BT v CU [2021] EWFC 87, [2022] 1 WLR 1349, and the last In re PP (A Child: Anonymisation) [2023] EWHC 330 (Fam), and Augousti v Matharu [2023] EWHC 1900 (Fam), Mostyn J has explosively ignited a most necessary debate about the anonymisation of judgments in financial remedy cases.
- Blog
- Anonymity
- Reporting Restriction Order
!08/01/2024 10:23
Fresh Carrot, Bigger Stick: Forthcoming Rule Changes and the ‘Encouragement’ of NCDR
FPR Part 3 has historically been underused. This is strange given that FPR 1.4 provides that the court ‘must further the overriding objective by actively managing cases’ and FPR 1.4(2)(f) states that active case management includes ‘encouraging the parties to use a non-court dispute resolution’, or ‘NCDR’, ‘procedure if the court considers that appropriate and facilitating the use of such procedure.’
- Blog
- Blog
- Out of Court Dispute Resolution Options
- NCDR
!03/01/2024 13:22
Some Reflections on the Launch of the Second Edition of the Pension Advisory Group Guide to Pensions on Divorce
The Pension Advisory Group have just published a second edition of their Guide to the Treatment of Pensions on Divorce – ‘PAG2’.
- Blog
- Pensions on Divorce
!20/12/2023 10:48