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Civil way: 28 March 2025

28 March 2025 / Stephen Gold
Issue: 8110 / Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Civil way
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Hold tightly in family; LPA is 100; suing too high; hello Business Ombudsman; new consumer law; employment awards up.

FINANCIAL REMEDY EXPRESS

We already have financial remedy applications (principally for periodical payments only) on the fast track. Now we are about to experience ‘express’ unlimited remedies for relative tiddlers through a 12-month pilot introduced by new PD 36H with FPR PD update no 1 of 2025 as from 7 April 2025. But not in all family court locations. The pilot is rushing to 33 centres including Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and, inevitably, Crewe with its 12 railway platforms. Not London where life is slower. The pilot will be limited to contested cases where the combined total of the parties’ net assets, excluding pension rights or pension protection fund compensation entitlement, is or is likely to be less than £250,000—or so considered to be by the applicant in the application.

On issue, the court will list a first hearing, intended as the FDR, within 16 to 20 weeks with a time estimate of

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Freeths—Ruth Clare

Freeths—Ruth Clare

National real estate team bolstered by partner hire in Manchester

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Farrer & Co—Claire Gordon

Partner appointed head of family team

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

mfg Solicitors—Neil Harrison

Firm strengthens agriculture and rural affairs team with partner return

NEWS
Conveyancing lawyers have enjoyed a rapid win after campaigning against UK Finance’s decision to charge for access to the Mortgage Lenders’ Handbook
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched a recruitment drive for talented early career and more senior barristers and solicitors
Regulators differed in the clarity and consistency of their post-Mazur advice and guidance, according to an interim report by the Legal Services Board (LSB)
The dangers of uncritical artificial intelligence (AI) use in legal practice are no longer hypothetical. In this week's NLJ, Dr Charanjit Singh of Holborn Chambers examines cases where lawyers relied on ‘hallucinated’ citations — entirely fictitious authorities generated by AI tools
The Solicitors Act 1974 may still underpin legal regulation, but its age is increasingly showing. Writing in NLJ this week, Victoria Morrison-Hughes of the Association of Costs Lawyers argues that the Act is ‘out of step with modern consumer law’ and actively deters fairness
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