FRJ stage

NCDR

DR Corner: Is NCDR Appropriate in Financial Remedy Cases where there is Domestic Abuse?

DR Corner: Is NCDR Appropriate in Financial Remedy Cases where there is Domestic Abuse?

In October 2024, a Resolution multi-disciplinary working party published a report, Domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings. Described as a ‘groundbreaking’ consideration of the interplay between domestic abuse and the treatment of finances on separation and divorce, this 18-month project is a powerful call for change from eminent family law

Avoiding the Bear Traps of Arbitration – Some Tips from the Coalface

Avoiding the Bear Traps of Arbitration – Some Tips from the Coalface

Arbitration is the form of ADR on everyone’s lips – even more so now with the new NCDR provisions that have come into force. Slow to get going, after its launch in 2012, and after Haley v Haley ironed out people’s concerns about routes to appeal, arbitration is sometimes

Non-Court Dispute Resolution and the New Protocol – Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth…

Non-Court Dispute Resolution and the New Protocol – Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth…

You don’t have to travel too far back to a time when separating families had two stark choices – negotiate or litigate. Either you did a deal or you went to court. Those days are now, fortunately, long gone but many couples have still found themselves struggling in the no

As the English Family Court Grapples with a New Direction of Travel for Non-Court Dispute Resolution, What Are the Likely Impacts of Recent Changes and Are We at Risk of Putting the Cart before the Horse?

As the English Family Court Grapples with a New Direction of Travel for Non-Court Dispute Resolution, What Are the Likely Impacts of Recent Changes and Are We at Risk of Putting the Cart before the Horse?

Pre-action reform – the background Over recent years, there have been an increasing number of public consultations and reports considering how to support the earlier resolution of civil disputes, both within the Family Courts and across other areas of practice. Whilst there are, of course, many benefits to the early resolution

The Art of the Award: Delivering an Arbitral Award in a Financial Remedies Case

The Art of the Award: Delivering an Arbitral Award in a Financial Remedies Case

Like advocacy, award writing is a solitary and idiosyncratic art. No doubt others use different brush strokes. These are my tips for award writing. A stitch in time saves nine. The tribunal does not want to be left at the end of a hearing without a clear roadmap of what

NCDR Redux: The Impact of October’s CPR Amendments

NCDR Redux: The Impact of October’s CPR Amendments

One of the changes to the FPR 2010 made when the material parts of the Family Procedure (Amendment No 2) Rules 2023 came into force on 29 April 2024 was an amendment to r 28.3(7) which by the insertion of a new (aa)(ii) makes ‘any failure by

NA v LA [2024] EWFC 113

Nicholas Allen KC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge. A ‘paradigm’ case for the court to exercise its new powers under FPR 3.4 to stay proceedings for the parties to engage in NCDR. The court heard the return date of two orders: (1) an ex parte non-molestation and