Cyber Essentials – What’s Changing?
Webinar: Cyber Essentials vs Cyber Essentials PLUS Date: Tuesday 4th February 2020 Time: 10am __________________ From April 2020 the IASME Consortium will take over the full responsibility for Cyber Essentials delivery. Why is this relevant to you? The legal sector is under attack. In the first 6 months of 2019, law firms reported a loss of £731,250 of […]
Contentious Family Proceedings Pepper BSB Complaints
Last week, (21st January 2020), the Bar Standards Board (BSB) released their annual Enforcement Report, which has resulted in some grim reading. The report revealed that the BSB is struggling to cope with the rise in complaints from members of the public (external complaints). These complaints have risen for the second year running, rising to […]
Application For Contact Withdrawn By Transgender Woman
A transgender woman has given up her five-year family court battle to see her five children. Following the revelation that the woman, only known as J, had been living as a woman, she had left her close-knit Haredi community in Manchester in 2015. The Haredi is an insular subset of ultra-Orthodox Jewry, where Jewish laws […]
Head Of Women’s Group Complaints Regarding Birmingham Lord Mayor
The new Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and former chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, has been widely criticised by campaigners for dismissing concerns regarding domestic violence and forced marriages. Shaista Gohir, the head of the Muslim Women’s Network (MWN), has stated, along with another witness, that Labour councillor, Muhammed Afzal, who was selected to fill the […]
Stressed Legal Professionals Increasingly Seeking Support
Legal professionals are increasingly turning to support frameworks because of the stresses in their work lives. The number of legal professionals asking LawCare for help and advice in 2019 increased by 8%. In total, the charity received over 900 contacts and dealt with 6,777 people asking for help in 2019. A quarter (26%) of all […]
Marilyn Stowe: Growing A Successful Law Firm
Marilyn Stowe remains one of the UK’s most famous family lawyers and legal entrepreneurs. Known for her formidable legal style when helping divorce clients, Stowe went on to become one of the UK’s authorities in family legal matters. Her meteoric success originated in 1982 when Stowe founded her firm, Stowe Family Law LLP, in Halton […]
£1 Million Grant To Help BAME Children’s Outcomes
The Alliance of Sport, together with the Youth Justice Boards for England and Wales (YJB) have secured a £1,000,000 grant from the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Thanks to match funding and in-kind resources, the grant has reached an impressive £1,700,000 that will be used to deliver a new ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ project. The grant […]
Can New Powers Make A “Critical Difference” To Victims Of Stalking
A father of a woman who was killed by her ex-boyfriend, has said that new powers that came into force on Monday 20th January 2020, could have made a “critical difference” in the case of his daughter. The new orders will allow police to apply to magistrates for a Stalking Protection Order (SPO) that can […]
Tech Abuse Suffered By 72% Of Refuge Service Users
The UK’s largest domestic violence charity, Refuge, has reported that 72% of its service uses have expressed that they have experienced tech abuse. Perpetrators of domestic abuse are increasingly using technology to abuse their victims, giving them the ability to reach into a victim’s personal life and home through tech such as personal devices, online […]
Case That Inspired A Request For Trial By Combat
In a bizarre divorce case from the States, a story has come to light that conjures images from Game of Thrones rather than a family court. A 40 year old man from Kansas, David Ostrom, had been left so “destroyed” by his ex-wife and her divorce lawyer in a legal dispute regarding property tac and […]
Family Mediation Week Launched
Family Mediation Week will highlight the importance of mediation in family matters and will run between January 20th and 24th. The campaign, launched by The Family Mediators Association (FMA), will raise awareness of mediation and the innate benefits it is able to offer families transitioning through separation or experiencing difficulties. The focus of the week […]
‘Fit For Law’ Resource To Combat Stress
LawCare, the legal mental health and well being charity has teamed up with academics from the University of Sheffield and The Open University to launch the free ‘Fit For Law’ course. ‘Fit For Law’ is a free online resource which is aimed at promoting a psychologically and emotionally healthier way of working within the legal […]
Judge’s Sentencing Remarks To Be Televised From Crown Courts
Following draft legislation laid down by the government on 16 January, television cameras will be given the authority to broadcast the sentencing remarks of judges in some high-profile courts throughout England and Wales. Applying to the sentencing from High Court and Senior Circuit judges, including the Old Bailey, the Crown Court (Recording and Broadcasting) Order […]
D-day For Reply: Medical Experts In Family Proceedings
Response to consultation D-day for replies to the consultation report of the Working Group on Medical Experts in the Family Courts of the President of the Family Division is 31 January 2020. Consultation questions are on page 53 of the report. Practitioners – medical, legal and judicial – are urged to respond to the questions, […]
Immigration Status Of Over 100,000 Children In London Not Secure
The University of Wolverhampton has estimated that more than 133,000 children and young people in London are living without a secure immigration status, meaning they are restricted from accessing higher education, employment and housing. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called it a ‘national disgrace’ and a potential ‘new Windrush’ scandal. The UK has […]
One In Five Adults Experienced Abuse Before Age 16
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has released the “Child abuse extent and nature, England and Wales: year ending March 2019” report. The report brings together a range of different sources from across the voluntary sector and the Government. With no formal definition of ‘child abuse’ in law, a definition has been established […]
Family Procedure Rules Practice Direction Trial Extended
A pilot scheme that introduced a procedure for using an online system to generate applications in certain private law proceedings relating to children, has been extended until the 27th January 2020. Originally set to run until the 28th January 2019, the Practice Direction 36G of the Family Procedure Rules has been extended by a year. […]
Increased Protection For Domestic Abuse Victims
It is hard to go anywhere this week without hearing something about Harry and Meghan, or the term #Megxit. The news that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have decided to take a step back from their royal duties and seek financial independence seems to have divided the nation and the greatest scandals of the […]
The Sussexes And The Rest Of Us: Publicity And Privacy
The story of Prince Harry and Meghan Markel (the ‘Sussexes’) and their life with the English media, prompts reflections on the law of press freedom and privacy as derived from common law, prompted by European Convention 1950 Arts 8 (‘respect for private and family life’: ie privacy) and 10 (freedom of expression: ie publicity). To […]
Will Digital Onboarding Become The Norm In 2020?
Webinar:Source of Funds – let technology remove the risk Date: 16th January Time: 10.00am __________________ Technology advances regardless of which sector people work in. It’s true that some sectors move a lot quicker than others and embrace technology but will 2020 be the year that the legal sector begins to open its mind to what’s out there. On […]