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05 February 2020 / David Burrows
Issue: 7873 / Categories: Features
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Family fortunes

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David Burrows identifies some familiar hot topics ripe for reform in 2020
  • Clarity of law and legal aid helps to approach a fair trial.
  • Secrecy: still a question in the family courts.

Around the turn of 2018–19 I speculated on what I would do if I ruled the family law world. I started from recognition that opaque—or badly drafted—law is injustice in itself, and ended with a plea for legal aid (see ‘Fixing family law: a wish list’, 169 NLJ 7823, p7). I identified eight further topics alongside these two. Family law reform should include, I suggested:

  • Clarity of law, for lack of clarity in law denies a fair trial.
  • Marriage laws: divorce law reform is important; but so too is the need for the law of marriage to be defined to fit 21st century secular and mixed religion society.
  • Child law procedure: how can a child know what rights he or she has when child law procedure is so complex?
  • Child Support Act 1991 with all its amendments
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NLJ this week: Tightening the screws on JCT terminations
The Supreme Court has delivered a decisive ruling on termination under the JCT Design & Build form. Writing in NLJ this week, Andrew Singer KC and Jonathan Ward, of Kings Chambers, analyse Providence Building Services v Hexagon Housing Association [2026] UKSC 1, which restores the first-instance decision and curbs contractors’ termination rights for repeated late payment
NLJ this week: Old rules, fresh warnings in employment law
Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
NLJ this week: The rise of the ‘ChatGPT client’ rattles the profession
The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
NLJ this week: Surrogacy children caught in succession gap
A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
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Fresh proposals to criminalise ‘nudification’ apps, prioritise cyberflashing and non-consensual intimate images, and even ban under-16s from social media have reignited debate over whether the Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA 2023) is fit for purpose. Writing in NLJ this week, Alexander Brown, head of technology, media and telecommunications, and Alexandra Webster, managing associate, Simmons & Simmons, caution against reactive law-making that could undermine the Act’s ‘risk-based and outcomes-focused’ design
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