David Burrows warns of an assault on family law
As Ryder J contemplates reform of the family justice system, he may wish to be aware of the assault by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court upon some of the more cherished assumptions of family lawyers. Family lawyers should perhaps look to the legitimacy of some of their long-held shibboleths before another Court of Appeal assault. For example, “review” hearings in children cases; restrictions in the rules on disclosure in financial remedy proceedings; and costs limitations in financial remedy proceedings: no statutory powers exist for any of these. To ignore the law, as the cases below show, can be repressive and is certainly illegal.
The beginning
Re B (Children) [2008] UKHL 35, [2008] 4 All ER 1 started the process. Lord Hoffmann patiently explained the principles of proof of facts in issue: till a fact in issue is proved then it is treated as not having happened (Lord Hoffmann’s binary system of evidence). This is the language of the adversarial process which is used in English civil courts.
Though the house did
