Family Courts without a Lawyer

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Pink Tape - a blog from the family bar

The latest posts from Lucy Reed's Pink Tape blog.

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• Doom and Gloom and very black Coffee
  Just thought I’d pop in and say hi. I am still here, not-blogging away quietly. I’m freshly arrived back from completing the annual bar survey, which prompted all sorts of deep consideration of life and the future. To respond to the questions I had to tot up how many hours a week I work (don’t [...]
  15/05/2013 23:55
• O-ver-load
  You know that thing when the Daleks get a bit hot under the carapace and spin around in confused fashion before grinding to a smokey halt, toilet plunger wilting at a jaunty angle? That. That is the feel of those of us struggling to absorb the vast amounts of new guidance, update and direction. “All-ca-ses-must-be-com-ple-ted-in-twen-ty-six-weeks…You-must-com-ply.” [...]
  05/05/2013 23:41
• Stick to the day job
  It is a truth universally acknowledged that at least 90% of people who work with children have not a clue about parental responsibility. Well, perhaps not universally acknowledged, and perhaps not 90%. And perhaps some of them have a little bit of a clue, but a little bit of a clue is a dangerous thing. [...]
  25/04/2013 21:49
• Purely Economics
  Today Margaret Thatcher was buried. I didn’t listen to the wall to wall coverage as I was in court, on a legal aid brief in the kind of case that would probably not attract legal aid if it commenced now (in fact there were dv issues, but I’m doubtful my client could have jumped the [...]
  18/04/2013 00:28
• Litigants in Person – Smooth on the outside crunchy on the inside
  Litigants in Person are a lot like armadillos. I know this: I’ve written a book about them (Litigants in Person not armadillos). Although, unlike Harry Enfield, I’ve found them sometimes to be a bit more spiky than smooth. But I’ve been thinking about the internal bit a lot lately, because I think it’s the key [...]
  12/04/2013 11:36
• Oh Look, I’ve Started a Trend
  It’s been a slow burn folks – Family Courts Without a Lawyer was published in 2011, and many were the perplexed looks and guffaws from colleagues at the bar back then. They thought I was nuts, some thought I was possibly mildly treacherous. But now it’s all the rage. It’s like Gangnam or Super Samurai [...]
  01/04/2013 23:26
• Legal Aid Reprieve
  Nope…Can’t do it. I had in mind a sort of black-humour April Fool : LASPO repealed, Jackson placed on hold, Theresa May and Abu Hamza go into shoewear business together – that sort of thing, But I’m not in the mood. No fluffy bunnies round here. Legal aid has been done in, and I worked [...]
  01/04/2013 07:00
• Absolutely Transparent
  Transparency in family justice is an issue that cannot be swept under the carpet – it ain’t going away. This week Christopher Booker wrote a piece in the Telegraph (bluntly titled “Australia’s scandal of forced adoption is happening here in Britain“) in which he drew a parallel between the forced adoptions in Australia, for which Prime [...]
  29/03/2013 23:09
• Family Courts Without a Lawyer – Updating Chapter
  The updating chapter to Family Courts Without a Lawyer – A Handbook for Litigants in Person is now available for download on the nofamilylawyer.co.uk website. If you have a 2011 copy you can download it, or if you are buying for the first time the 2013 reprint will incorporate that chapter. Order your copy online [...]
  27/03/2013 10:16
• Access all stakeholders
  The Family Justice Knowledge Hub. Sounds modern dunnit? It’s not really. It’s a newsletter in word format with a boxy design, which collates details of recent and current research bearing upon matters of family justice. Boxy but useful. Like a volvo. You can subscribe to it by emailing knowledgehub@justice.gsi.gov.uk. Not that you’d know because there [...]
  24/03/2013 21:05
• Gotta Licence to Blog
  So. Leveson then. Not just for newspapers but for lil ol’ blogs too it seems. Fab-O. Not really in a position to analyse myself at the moment but : Useful Storify here. In particular see this article about the whole license to blog thang. Is it chilly in here?
  18/03/2013 21:14
• A little help from my McKenzie Friend – might be frowned upon
  I revisited the case of Re H (Children) [2012] EWCA Civ 1797 recently, having read a blog post about it on Suesspicious Minds entitled Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a McKenzie Friend? (Yes I know, my song title is inferior to his). As pointed out in that post its an authority which is not on [...]
  08/03/2013 22:37
• Gale Force
  I came across a chap called David Gale recently when he posted a comment on my blog, and in one of my more idle moments I clicked through to find out about who he was. David Gale it seems, is a UKIP activist, an unsuccessful candidate for Police Commissioner, and the man behind a campaign [...]
  08/03/2013 08:00
• Mystery Solved!
  It’s Official! Self Represented Litigants are OUT. Litigants in Person are back IN. And I have PROOF. Which is good, because I’ve been chasing my tail trying to track the source of the rumours trickling out and beyond working out there was some form of guidance being circulated around the judiciary, and being told that [...]
  07/03/2013 21:10
• See Through Justice
  Transparency is edging closer. After the Childrens Schools and Families Act 2010 fiasco (provisions reforming privacy in family proceedings which were much criticised, never brought into force and finally repealed by the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012), we’ve been left with the small step introduced in 2010 that was allowing reporters [...]
  03/03/2013 21:14
• What does “exceptional” mean in a post-LASPO world?
  Some have speculated that once LASPO 2012 has been implemented on 1 April and pretty much everything falls out of scope there will be plenty of – erm – scope – for applications under the “exceptional cases” provisions (Legal aid cuts? What legal aid cuts? [2012] Fam Law 1267, Peter Graham Harris, Oxford Centre for [...]
  28/02/2013 11:02
• She’s Gone Country…
  I rely heavily on Radio 4 in the mornings, both as antidote to early morning Cbeebies and in order to kick start my mental factulties. I’m usually animatedly berating Humph by the time I screech into my parking space of a morning, raring to get to court and exercise my lungs a bit more. But [...]
  24/02/2013 23:19
• Your Centre for Human Rights in Practice needs you!
  Whether you are not-for-profit or private sector, if you work (or did recently work) in any of the following areas of law under public funding (legal aid) the Centre for Human Rights in Practice are asking you to complete this survey and and pass it to anyone else you know. It is fully anonymous and can only be [...]
  12/02/2013 15:29
• Dad Tax?
  You may not have noticed amidst the horsemeat hysteria and gay marriage news – but the Children and Families Bill was published this week. I haven’t had time to do more than glance at the Bill, but it looks more or less as we expected it to. The Bill will introduce a presumption of parental involvement, [...]
  08/02/2013 22:27
• Plugarama for St John’s Chambers
  WARNING :Shameless plug for some super seminars being offered by my fab colleagues in chambers. First up : Dynamic Duo Andrew Commins and Richard Norman prrrreeeesent *drum roll* : Top Ten Family Finance Cases of 2012 (Bristol, 12 March, 4.30pm). Gosh do we bloggers love a Top Ten. Topical and Timely (it says on the tin), [...]
  06/02/2013 21:35
• Hodge Podge
  I have some podge going begging. So whilst my new weight loss kick is distracting me from proper blogging on account of me having to spend several hours a day looking wan and draping the back of my hand weakly across my brow, you can have my leftover hodge podge, my bubble and squeak of blogging. [...]
  03/02/2013 20:16
• A Trickle not a Flood…
  There’s been a bit of  drought around here lately I know. And the forecast is for that to continue I’m afraid. But I do have time for a quick Sunday night post. Last week the Legal Services Board published research that it had commissioned on the Cab Rank Rule, prepared by Professors John Flood and [...]
  27/01/2013 22:53
• Acclaimed barrister demoted from QC
  Not so long ago I appeared on the pages of Legal Cheek as a QC, hob nobbing with the likes of Cherie Booth QC (she was once embarrasingly present as my debit card was declined for a £12 bill in the House of Lords canteen, when I was pupil to her junior on a case [...]
  14/01/2013 14:14
• Risky Behaviour, blame and consequences
  I heard Sue Berelowitz, Deputy Childrens’ Commissioner, on the radio on Friday night (Fri 11 Jan, PM at c17:10pm). She was talking about societal attitudes to victims of sexual abuse in the wake of the Jimmy Saville scandal, and was asked how much society had changed since the era of the 50s, 60s and 70s. [...]
  13/01/2013 22:28
• I always knew I was a psychopath, it’s my best feature…
  So apparently (it says here) lawyers are number two on a top ten list of professions most likely to be chock full of psychopaths. This I can believe – to a degree. There are some pretty odd, dysfunctional, antisocial, cold-fish lawyers out there (no names), and I’m happy to subscribe to the idea that mine [...]
  03/01/2013 23:44
• Obligatory end of year roundup post
  I wasn’t gonna do it. Because I had a sneaking suspicion that it might be a) a bit tedious for me and b) a bit tedious for you. But then I got sent a Pink Tape “annual report” from Jetpack, the bods what do my webstats. It’s gratifying to know that the most traffic I [...]
  30/12/2012 23:34
• Boxing Clever
  I wasn’t planning on any Christmas blogging. There are better things to do, like drink sloe gin, eat vast amounts of all sorts of things, and play with the childrens’ new toys. But then my Xmas was intruded upon when a family law related “news” item wafted into my dreams when the radio alarm went [...]
  26/12/2012 21:57
• All about Lawcare
  Seems like a good time of year to remind you folks all about Lawcare… Since 1997, LawCare has been helping members of the legal professions to face problems such as addition, stress, depression and emotional issues through its free and confidential helpline service. However, there are still many lawyers who are not aware of the [...]
  21/12/2012 21:50
• Don’t Panic! The HUB is HERE!!!
  Stand down everyone. The impending crisis has been averted by a little purple super hero of a website. No – Not Fathers 4 Justice, something with a rather broader appeal. Ladies and gentlemen, mothers and fathers, batmen and wonderwomen, I offer you the much promised, much trumpeted….* drum roll *…Sorting out Separation Hub. * deflating [...]
  17/12/2012 21:57
• A Little Local Practice
  “Local Practice” used to be a term issued with a sneer by London counsel, lording it about how parochial sticks-based courts were (in truth I may be guilty of muttering it under my breath myself occasionally when I appear in an unfamiliar court that appears to have had an article 6 bypass). However, Local Practice [...]
  16/12/2012 21:55
• Family Justice Modernisation Programme Update No. Nine and Three Quarters
  This press release just in from Mr Justice Schrodinger, Family Justice Modernisator: Family Justice Modernisation Programme Update No 9 3/4  I am pleased to announce that, in furtherance of the prime objective of efficiency and pace, all care cases issued after 1 January 2013 will be cascaded through the new algorithmic family justice hyper-rationalisation drive, [...]
  11/12/2012 16:17
• The Mail Reveals THE TRUTH…Well one version of it anyways
  Thanks Adam Wagner for pointing out the “shocking revelations” in the Mail today (It’s the social workers who are racist, say Slovak parents in UKIP fostering scandal: The Mail reveals the truth behind Thought Police furore – and it’s more shocking than it seemed), concerning the UKIP foster care row. I was planning to have [...]
  07/12/2012 09:48