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NLJ this week: Family law focus & looking ahead to 2025

10 January 2025
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Divorce , Child law
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Family law moved fast last year, with a renewed focus on non-court dispute resolution, more transparency and new protections for domestic abuse victims. And there’s more to come in 2025, as Ruth Omoregie, associate solicitor, and Lola Ajayi, solicitor at Anthony Gold, write in this week’s NLJ.

Omoregie and Ajayi explore key developments and decisions in the past year, including an important decision on the matrimonialisation of assets, examining their implications for families navigating legal challenges.

As for the year ahead, reforms could be introduced on financial remedies on divorce and the rights of cohabiting couples.

Omoregie and Ajayi write: ‘Some jurisdictions, such as Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand, have implemented reforms to offer better protections for cohabitants, such as laws to protect cohabiting couples or provisions of a de facto legal status after a period of cohabitation/children. There are calls for similar reforms in England and Wales, with expectations of change in the near future.’
Issue: 8099 / Categories: Legal News , Family , Divorce , Child law
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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 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
A Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruling has reopened debate on the availability of ‘user damages’ in competition claims. Writing in NLJ this week, Edward Nyman of Hausfeld explains how the CAT allowed Dr Liza Lovdahl Gormsen’s alternative damages case against Meta to proceed, rejecting arguments that such damages are barred in competition law
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