Chair’s Column (Winter 2025)

Sitting day cuts in the London FRC

All judges who deal with financial remedies cases are acutely aware of the shortage of FRC judge sitting days against the need for hearings. This has, of course, not been assisted by the recent announcement by the President of significant cuts in FRC sitting days in London: see the FRC Corner on the FRJ website: Letter from the President of the Family Division – FRC London Sitting Day Allocation, 15 September 2025. The pain caused by these announcements can be read about in two powerful FRJ Blogs: see FRJ website blogs by Sassa-Ann Amaouche KC and Professor David Hodson OBE KC (Hons) for 25 and 22 September 2025, respectively, and was described eloquently in Sir Nicholas Mostyn’s keynote speech to the Financial Remedies Conference on 16 October 2025. Judges are aware of the competition for government resources between the Criminal, Civil and Family Divisions, and also between public children, private children and financial remedies within the Family Division, but will be keen to make sure that the case for a sufficient number of FRC sitting days continues to be made at the highest levels.

Observations of a litigant-in-person

We are pleased in this issue to publish (appropriately anonymised, so as to avoid the identification of the lawyers against whom some significant criticisms are made) the powerful observations of a litigant-in-person engaged in the financial remedies litigation process: ‘FPR PD 27A and Procedural Ambush – A Litigant-in-Person’s Perspective’. Whether or not all the criticisms are justified, it will be very useful for judges and practitioners, who are by definition very familiar with the procedures discussed, to hear how things look from the perspective of somebody to whom these procedures are encountered only as a once-off in their own case. It goes without saying that the judges and practitioners who have dealings with litigants-in-person should do their very best to assist them where they can in a professional manner; but even where this is properly done, litigants-in-person are still likely to feel at a disadvantage. I hear and note in particular the author’s strong call for litigants-in-person to be given proper access to the portal. It may not be full consolation to the author, but I am pleased to confirm that the FRC Leadership has been pushing HMCTS in this direction for a while and I can inform those who have not yet heard that, from a date in the spring or early summer of 2026, HMCTS will be launching the new facility for litigants-in-person to be able to upload their paperwork directly and electronically on to the portal. It is to be hoped that the existing practice of having to send documents in paper form to the bulk scanning centre in Harlow will fall into desuetude. When it happens, this will be a major and much sought improvement to the FRC portal.

Family law does not live on a desert island on its own!

Family lawyers have occasionally been admonished against wishing to live on a desert island of their own (for example by Sir James Munby and Lord Sumption). Any family lawyers who might be attracted by a desert island culture should read three excellent articles in this issue, where helpful light is shone from outside the natural world of the family lawyer on to knowledge, practice and procedures within. Thomas Haggie’s ‘Civil Law with Family Characteristics’ discusses in depth the process of pleadings and disclosure in family law in the context of how these things are managed in civil law. Judge Michael Michell, the Principal Judge of the Land Registration Division (a First-Tier Tribunal Judge) informatively presents ‘When Couples Fall Out: The Role of the Land Registration Division in Dispute Resolution’, a must-read article for any financial remedies lawyer dealing with a complicated real property dispute. The article ‘Divorcing Couples and the Family Home – Five Tax Pitfalls’ by Holly Symonds and Jackie Hockney (a chartered tax adviser) provides some vitally needed answers on how tax liabilities arise as a result of decisions in financial remedies cases. Family lawyers need to be aware of the detailed issues presented by all these articles.

The Financial Remedies Conference 2025

On 16 October 2025 many active members of the financial remedies community gathered, courtesy of Class Legal, in the Shaw Theatre in the Euston Road to hear a full day of talks on a wide variety of subjects related to our work. The day concluded with the inaugural Financial Remedies Awards. I am delighted to congratulate Nicholas Allen KC and Michael Allum, two distinguished members of the FRJ Editorial Board, for their well-deserved victories as Barrister and Solicitor of the Year, respectively. It was tremendous also to see Karen Barham (a contributor to and supporter of the FRJ) taking an Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her tireless and ground-breaking work in NCDR over many years.

The judging panel join the prize-winners at the inaugural Financial Remedies Awards