Family Law is enormously complex. Families going through proceedings are at their most vulnerable and need specialist advice from lawyers who understand and are experts in dealing with the financial consequences of the breakdown of a family, but also the emotional impact on the family.
With effect from 22nd April 2014 new rules were introduced setting out how the court is to deal with family matters.
There is now a single family court rather than Family Proceedings (previously Magistrates Court), County Court and High Court. This should mean that matters are dealt with more quickly because there is now one court instead of three. In reality there are still different types of Judges who will deal with matters according to the complexity of the case.
The most significant change relates to orders in relation to children. Where there are proceedings taken by the local authority for children at risk, those proceedings should be dealt with in a time scale of 26 weeks. Contact and Residence orders have been replaced with Child Arrangement Orders.
The court has always encouraged parties to try to reach agreement about money and children by attending mediation. However, there is now a requirement that parties must attend a mediation information meeting to assess whether or not they are suitable for mediation. If the parties do not attend a mediation information meeting, in some circumstances, they will not be able to issue an application to deal with money and children matters. There are exceptions, but the circumstances in which parties are exempt from attending mediation information meetings are extremely limited.
For further information on this article, please contact our Family Team on 0121 698 2200 fill in our online enquiry form.
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