David Burrows reflects on the state of family law & considers the chances of alignment of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 with the Civil Procedure Rules 1998
- Questions our understanding of the ‘magic circle’ of family lawyers.
- Discusses the single family court and the use of the term ‘financial remedies’.
- Asks whether the FPR could ever be aligned with the CPR.
This article addresses three questions about the modern state of family law:
(1) What or who is the ‘magic circle’ of family lawyers?
(2) What is the meaning of a ‘financial remedies court’?
(3) In 2022 (and a much more important debate than the other two), what are the realistic chances of alignment of the Family Procedure Rules with the Civil Procedure Rules 1998?
A first thing to assert is that the term ‘financial remedy’ does not exist in statute. It was made up by rule-makers in and approaching April 2011 when the new Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) came into operation. The terms approved in statute—rules are merely not disapproved, ie they are not approved
