Family

Articles

The report on improving family court services for children is an unsurprisingly depressing read for family law practitioners

Rachel Frost-Smith, Legal Director of the Family Team at Birketts, shares her experience of the impact of the delays in family court proceedings

The future of children in the family justice system: the NAO audit

Rachel Fisher, a Partner at Stowe Family Law, shares her thoughts on the latest National Audit Office report

Breaking the cycle: the guidance on parental alienation

When dealing with arrangements for children during legal proceedings allegations of parental alienation are sometimes raised, Legal Director and family law Solicitor, Rina Mistry, discusses how to identify parental alienation and the potential for more regulated change in the future

Has the case of Re Z impacted the law on surrogacy?

Sarah Bell, a Partner at Stephens Scown, assesses the wider impact of the ruling in Re Z (Surrogacy: Step-parent Adoption) [2024] EWFC 20

Dividing complex wealth in high-net-worth divorce

Nicky Hunter examines how courts approach dividing high-value, illiquid and risky assets in today’s high-net-worth divorce cases

A reflection on 10 years of the offence of controlling and coercive behaviour

Matthew Hardcastle and Connie Atkinson from Kingsley Napley reflect on the decade since the coming into force of the offence of controlling and coercive behaviour

Gillick competent minors and parental authority: lessons from S v F and M [2025] EWHC 439 (Fam)

Ceri White, Barrister at 4PB, summarises the main takeaways from the case and its implications

Will legal aid, as with so many other public services, simply be co-opted into a system of managed decline?

Daniel Newman, Professor in Law at Cardiff University, Emma Cooke, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Kent, and Jess Mant, a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, discuss the findings from their recent project funded by the British Academy on the legal aid sector