Review of the Standard Family Orders (SFOs)

[2026] 1 FRJ 52. Karen Richardson is 22 years old in 1990 and meets her future husband, Ray Parlour. Ray is 19 and signed his first professional contract with Arsenal less than 12 months ago. Football, as culturally significant then as it is now, was about to change beyond all measure.

A barrister and mediator working in financial remedies asks whether the civil mediation model could be used more widely in financial remedies cases, and brought into the mainstream of ADR in this area of law, helping cases to settle sooner, or resolving them even before court proceedings are issued.

Samantha Hillas KC talks to a female trailblazer, who has been at the coalface of financial remedies work during a career so far spanning almost half a century, about her journey to the Bar, her judicial appointments and the swingeing changes in practice that she has witnessed along the way.