This week we are looking at the role of the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (‘CAFCASS ‘) in family cases and how this may change in the future. By way of reminder, a while ago we wrote about the role of CAFCASS in our ‘who or what is CAFCASS’ blog. Recent guidance issued by CAFCASS suggests their involvement with families and the court system will change. With effect from 1 July, CAFCASS issued specific guidance, with the approval of the President of the Family Division, on the use of their professional time to benefit children. The overall aim…
Today we are looking at how to help those representing themselves in court proceedings. As members of Resolution we take an amicable and non-confrontational approach and try to keep families out of litigation if at all possible. However, for some families, turning to the court is the only way to make real progress on certain issues, particularly where out-of-court dispute resolution options have been tried unsuccessfully. Moving towards court proceedings does not have to mean all-out battle with your former partner. It is entirely possible to conduct court proceedings in a measured, constructive and non-combative manner, and that is what…
This week, social media has been back in the news. We hear a lot about social media as family lawyers, usually in a negative way: its impact on marriages is not always, we find, beneficial. However, there’s just been a case in which a judge has acknowledged the power of social media to enable people to be reached, so that they can be part of important court decisions. The report concerns adoption proceedings about a little boy of four years old. His birth parents are both foreign nationals, who were living together with their son in the Manchester area before…
When a significant relationship or marriage ends, there is almost always loss and grief. This is true not just for people to whom the separation comes as a shock, but also for those who instigate the end, and for those for whom it is a truly mutual decision reached after a great deal of thought and consideration. Even for those whose relationship may have been objectively abusive or dysfunctional, and for whom the end of the relationship may come as a relief, there is a void afterwards: a lack of something that was there before, a loss of what you…
