Family

Justice secretary Dominic Raab is “in the market for something quite drastic and bold” to reduce the number of private law family cases in the courts, he said yesterday in a wide-ranging discussion.

A future where lawyers act for both sides of divorces as a matter of course and others exit regulation to offer a new kind of service has been sketched out by Resolution.

A significant number of expert witnesses who have been appeared in court remotely over the past 18 months say barristers have been “less aggressive” in their cross-examination.

The lawyers are the only beneficiaries of a “nihilistic” divorce dispute that has cost £2.3m in legal fees, with the couple’s children the main losers, a High Court judge has ruled.

A pilot version of an unbundled family law service for litigants in person has enabled them to save 70% on legal fees and is to be expanded; meanwhile, the SRA is to run its own unbundling pilot.

The High Court has dismissed 28 divorce petitions drafted by online service iDivorces because they contained “absolutely identical” particulars. The company said the judge was “very understanding”.

The mobile phone of top solicitor Baroness Shackleton was hacked on the authority of the ruler of Dubai and she was alerted to it by Cherie Blair QC, an extraordinary Court of Appeal ruling has revealed.

There is “strong justification” for increasing 129 court fees by inflation, backdated to 2016, the Ministry of Justice has said.

PocketLaw, a start-up aiming to provide a one-stop shop for the legal needs of SMEs, has secured further funding of £1.2m, while an online divorce service has named a top judge as an advisor.

Family lawyers should scrap billing targets and develop a new business model, a senior practitioner has said, while criticising the failure to continue pushing collaborative law.

A solicitor who entered into a damages-based agreement with a family law client and pursued her for costs under it has been fined £10,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.

The barrister suspended from the innovative family law business she founded after being accused of making racist comments about the latest Royal baby has returned to work.

A Family Court judge has been highly critical of the “woeful conduct” of a solicitor in her own divorce dispute, describing her evidence as “elusive and evasive”.

A freelance solicitor has teamed up with a former KPMG partner to launch a divorce business that guarantees its fixed-fee quote for the whole process, including ancillary relief.

A “boutique life management service” is aiming to reduce the stress of divorce and bereavement by providing a holistic service including legal and financial advice.