Blog: Sandra Davis' Week
6 October 2011
The BBC reported last Friday on the latest round of court closures in Shropshire as part of the Ministry of Justice's rationalisation drive that will see up to 142 courts closed in England & Wales. Read more >
12 July 2011
Writing in these pages earlier this year, I suggested that the ongoing controversy surrounding the decision in Payne v Payne could be dampened by the re-affirmation that in relocation cases, as in all other cases concerning children, welfare is the paramount consideration. Read more >
23 June 2011
Having just sent the Ministry of Justice my Department's response to the Family Justice Review Interim Report it seems to me that this debate about our family justice system entirely misses the point. Read more >
2 June 2011
Speaking a couple of weeks ago Sir Paul Coleridge described our divorce and matrimonial finance laws as "a dead parrot". Law reform since 1970 has been, he said "by inertia, stealth, common sense and the laws of cricket." Read more >
26 May 2011
This week, in E (Children) UKSC 2011/0084, the Supreme Court heard argument about the correct approach to the Article 13(b) exception to the duty to return under the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Read more >
14 April 2011
Contested international child relocation cases have profound effects on families. The impact on a parent of being refused permission to relocate abroad can be just as harsh as the impact on the parent left behind if permission is granted. For children the impact is even greater. Read more >
07 April 2011
David Norgrove's interim report on the family justice system makes for sombre reading. Read more >
25 February 2011
Part 1.1 of the new Family Procedure Rules 2010 ("FPR") repeats the overriding objective in ancillary relief proceedings contained at rule 2.51D of the old Family Proceedings Rules. More than this, it extends it to all family litigation. Read more >
10 December 2010
The problem with the latest report from the Centre for Social Justice published last Monday (Family breakdown in the UK: it's NOT about divorce) is not what it says, but how it suggests the social ills it identifies can be remedied. Read more >
19 November 2010
The purpose of the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1948 was "to make legal aid and advice in England & Wales... more readily available for persons of small or moderate means". Read more >
12 November 2010
Much of the press has picked up on a report published yesterday by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which has condemned organisational and systemic failures in the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass). Read more >
5 November 2010
The impact parental separation has on children, particularly in relation to their emotional, educational and social development, depends very much on the extent of any conflict that exists between the adults involved. Read more >
29 October 2010
In White and then Miller; McFarlane the House of Lords told us that a fair division of income and capital was the imperative; there was no place for gender discrimination in matrimonial finance; and need, compensation and/or sharing were the three rationales for making an order. Read more >
1 October 2010
The mistake many people make about the Family Justice System is that it is the best forum for the resolution of family disputes. It isn't. Read more >
26 August 2010
I was intrigued by a short piece in Friday's Telegraph about the "Divorce Probability Calculator". The calculator was designed by a US insurance company looking to attract attention for the kind of product that Kenneth Clarke appears rather keen on as an alternative to public funding. Read more >
20 August 2010
The Ministry of Justice has committed to reducing its annual expenditure from £9B to £7B. It won't escape the attention of most readers that the difference is identical to the amount of the annual Legal Aid budget. Read more >
30 July 2010
A right to privacy or a cheat's charter? In 177 carefully crafted paragraphs the Court of Appeal yesterday rewrote the rules of engagement in matrimonial finance cases. Read more >
22 July 2010
Equal time or quality time? Last week Bill Binley, the Conservative MP for Northampton South tabled his private member's "Shared Parenting Bill". Read more >
15 July 2010
Delivering the lead judgment on Tuesday in Golubovich v Golubovich [2010] EWCA Civ 810, Lord Justice Thorpe concluded with a withering assault on "the rich who fight to establish priority" between competing jurisdictions to try their divorces. Read more >
2 July 2010
So, it has begun. The long trailed Family Law Review was announced on Wednesday with a "call for evidence" launched by the Review Panel. Read more >
25 June 2010
Writing on 14 June David Hodson drew attention to the Washington Declaration on International Family Relocation. The declaration was issued following a three day conference that took place in March attended by over 50 judges and experts from 14 countries including the UK. Read more >
17 June 2010
No litigation is cheap, certainly not litigation concerning matrimonial finance. Of course one important difference between matrimonial and most other litigation is that divorce is an uninsurable risk and the costs are non-deductable. Read more >
10 June 2010
Sir Mark Potter's five year tenure as President of the Family Division was far from uneventful. Read more >
27 May 2010
Last week David Cameron and Nick Clegg announced the coalition's five year programme for government. Read more >
21 May 2010
Last week I wrote about the financial constraints which are impeding the operation of the family justice system to the detriment of children and parents. Read more >
13 May 2010
Earlier this week one of my clients received judgment on his wife's application to relocate overseas with their children. The case was hard fought, the issues complex and there were a large number of witnesses including five expert witnesses. Read more >
6 May 2010
On Monday the Conservatives published their "Contract for Equalities", announcing that they will, if elected, consider the case for civil partnerships between same-sex couples to be "called and classified as marriage". Read more >
19 April 2010
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we've grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life - the proof is in the column inches devoted to celebrity divorces and the financial awards made against the fabulously wealthy. Read more >