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14 July 2023
Issue: 8033 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Child law , Procedure & practice
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NLJ this week: Family rules break their own simplicity commandment

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Rules should be ‘simple and simply expressed’, according to the Courts Act 2003—yet Mr Justice Mostyn recently urged rule-makers to look again at the ‘Byzantine’ rules governing the release of documents to children proceedings.

In this week’s NLJ, solicitor advocate and NLJ columnist David Burrows looks at the case, EBK v DLO, and the surrounding issues.

Burrows writes: ‘This subject takes an unsuspecting parent into a variety of confusing (including for Mostyn J) and confused crosscurrents of law and procedural rules. As this article concludes, the twists demanded by the rules may justify parties to a case like EBK in seeking a declaration that the rules as they now stand are barely lawful.’ 

Read more on the 'tangled web' here.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Jurit LLP—Caroline Williams

Private wealth and tax team welcomes cross-border specialist as consultant

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

Freeths—Michelle Kirkland Elias

International hospitality and leisure specialist joins corporate team as partner

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Flint Bishop—Deborah Niven

Firm appoints head of intellectual property to drive northern growth

NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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