All
The following recent judgement K v K [2022] is an interesting read and provides a lot of clarification by Sir Andrew Macfarlane President of the Family Division.
Some key points are:
- FHDRA - should be used to determine the matters in dispute and whether non court dispute resolution can be used to remedy.
- Mediation - at every possible opportunity, it should be considered whether mediation would be better rather than court.
- Fact Finding Hearings - should only be held where the outcome determines/impacts child contact or welfare of the child and not to determine matters relating to the previous relationship.
- Allegations - only allegations relating to the welfare of child or child contact should be considered. Just because there have been allegations of domestic violence, this does not mean these have to be considered and fact finding hearings held. Eg if the father has been seeing the children unsupervised after separation, if the mother subsequently raises allegations of domestic violence that occurred during the relationship and stops contact, this does not mean a Finding of Fact Hearing is required.
- Relevance and Proportionality is important.
- Cafcass - the last word at the end makes an interesting read, in so far as how wide off the mark Cafcass were when summarising the original judgement in their final report.
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2022/468.html
There are many aspects of this judgement and the commentary that can be used when self representing.
All the best.
