Matilda Battersby is a freelance journalist and editor, and a senior reporter at the Today’s Media titles. She worked at The Independent newspaper for many years, but has also worked at The Times, Evening Standard, Telegraph and I newspapers since going freelance in 2015. Her specialisms are property and books, having worked extensively for various trade property magazines and The Bookseller magazine. She is based in East London.
The government’s response to the Justice Select Committee’s access to justice report is “disappointing” and “inadequate,” according to MPs. The Justice Select Committee has called on the Ministry of Justice to “urgently prioritise” legal aid,
A family court judge in Birmingham has refused a father’s application for a spend-time-with order in relation to a child aged 10 who is resistant to contact and says he ‘hates his father’. In F
The Law Society of England and Wales has warned about the potential for “misleading documents” in its response to the Civil Justice Council’s report on preparing court documents with AI. Brett Dixon, Law Society president,
The President of the Family Division Sir Stephen Cobb has published new guidance for short notice applications in public law family proceedings. The four-page document is designed to provide coherent information for all stakeholders in
The Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, has retired after almost three decades as a judge. Vos has been head of civil Justice and second most senior judge in England and Wales since 2021,
The High Court family division has refused all grounds for an appeal on a decision concerning a nine-year-old boy known in court as O. A judge, Recorder Ranjit Singh, sitting at Horsham Family Court on
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) says the number of firms found to be non-compliant over anti-money laundering (AML) fell almost 10% this year. The independent regulatory body for solicitors found 78% of firms were either
A man who repeatedly assaulted his former partner has had a suspended prison sentence overturned after the newly appointed Attorney General intervened. Aiden Ford, 40, of Hanham, Bristol, will now serve four years and three
Domestic abuse charity Refuge has said the publication of the first violence against women and girls (VAWG) and Public Protection Strategic Threat and Risk Assessment “sheds fresh light on the alarming scale of abuse” and
The government has announced new plans to help domestic abuse survivors to stay in social housing while evicting perpetrators of abuse. A new measure tabled for the Social Housing Bill is designed to stop survivors
New guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) published by the Law Society of England and Wales makes it clear that these tools are not a legal entity and responsibility remains human. A new Law Society practice
The president of the Family Division, Sir Stephen Cobb, is holding a webinar on new guidance and materials designed to improve the management of short notice applications in public law family proceedings. The webinar will
The Law Society is calling for the UK government, regulators and local authorities to take action to support small firms and sole practitioners, warning that pressures on recruitment and burdensome regulation threaten their existence. Research
The High Court has rejected a husband’s claim that his interests in family trusts worth billions of pounds shouldn’t be treated as matrimonial assets. In a divorce case TP v TF [2026] EWFC 210, which
The new president of the Law Society of England and Wales has vowed to “champion a criminal justice system that is fit for the future”. Brett Dixon became the 182nd president, replacing outgoing president Mark
The Justice Committee has welcomed the government’s decision to roll back on jury reforms, but has issued new warnings over the burden being placed on magistrates’ courts, saying planned recruitment of magistrates is “unrealistic”. Last
The Law Society of England and Wales is calling for Prime Minister Andy Burnham to implement the means test reforms to legal aid promised by earlier governments. A 2018 report, Priced Out of Justice, commissioned
Legal teams had to piece together photographs, medical records, bank statements and police evidence in a highly unusual High Court fact-finding hearing which became a “forensic investigation” to establish whether children at the centre of
The government has mostly scaled back its plans to scrap juries for some criminal trials, with the Lord Chancellor responding to the “strength of feeling” on the issue. In December 2025 the then-deputy prime minister
The first Court of Appeal judgment considered under the Child Focused Court (CFC) model has dismissed the majority of an appeal made by a mother against child access arrangements with a father who had admitted
The chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB), Monisha Shah, has warned regulators to “identify emerging risks before they become system challenges” and protect consumers while supporting innovation. In her opening remarks at the International
Two in five UK adults (38.9%) would pay a premium for private financial dispute resolution if it meant receiving a faster service or shorter waiting time, new research suggests. A survey of 1,000 UK adults,
The government has decided to stop referring to domestic abuse-related deaths as ‘domestic homicides’ in its statutory guidance. Instead of domestic homicide reviews (DHRs), it will use the term ‘domestic abuse related death reviews’, or
The prime minister has announced that specialist rape courts will be rolled out across England and Wales over the next two years. Rape cases will also be prioritised in the courts, in a bid to
The government has launched a new national taskforce to root out misogyny from across society, chaired by the minister for women and equalities, Bridget Phillipson (pictured). The taskforce will bring together experts from across the
The Law Society of England and Wales has welcomed the government’s new anti-money laundering and recovery strategy, but has warned about the potential for “increased burden” and duplication of work for solicitors and firms. The
A judge at Yeovil Financial Remedies Court (pictured) has described a man who transferred his remaining UK property into a trust for his sister in a bid to avoid paying overdue child maintenance for his
The Scottish government has launched a review of NHS access to IVF treatment to consider whether it should be extended to single women and couples who have children from previous relationships. As well as widening
Appeal judges at the High Court found that a judge at the East London family court’s “approach was flawed” after guardianship was awarded to a child’s foster carer without establishing if the threshold for permanent
A family court judge has concluded that a same-sex parent named on a child’s birth certificate, but who hasn’t taken other steps towards legal parentage, cannot apply for a child arrangement order because she doesn’t
The government has said it “is not in a position to bring forward legislation on surrogacy reform” but will consider “options for future reform” following a debate in Parliament triggered by a public petition. The
A bill intended to make provision about support for infants, parents, carers of infants, and prospective parents and carers has passed its second reading and will move onto committee stage. The Infants, Parents and Carers
The incoming Law Society president has called for greater openness around disability in the legal sector. Brett Dixon, who will take up the post from October 2026, said improving disability inclusion is one of the
The Law Society of England and Wales has warned that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) complaints handling proposals could “increase administrative burden without delivering clear benefits for consumers”. The SRA recently consulted for a second
A judge has ordered a husband to pay his wife £110,000 after he failed to “provide a scintilla of accurate disclosure” about his assets and acted in a “deliberate and calculated” way to leave his
New research shows that 94% of lawyers use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for legal work, with 74% using it at least once a week and 34% using it every day. One in 10 (10%) of the