The President of the Family Division announced at the start of December plans to pilot proposals first made by family law judge HHJ Edward Hess and Joanna Miles (in (2016) Family Law 1335 and then with HHJ Martin O’Dwyer of the Central Family Court in (2017) Family Law 625) for the creation of a network of specialist Financial Remedies Courts across England & Wales.
The project will be led at national level by Family Division judge Mostyn J, with HHJ Hess as deputy. The proposal is intended in part to meet concerns expressed by the Law Commission and others about apparent geographical inconsistency of outcomes in financial remedy cases on divorce, by ensuring that such cases are dealt with by specialist judges. The pilot is expected to commence in early 2018.
Related to this work, Joanna Miles is currently engaged in revisions of the Family Justice Council’s widely acclaimed guidance for resolving money cases in “everyday” divorce cases (addressed to judges/lawyers and to litigants in person) and working on a new large inter-disciplinary group devising guidance for the treatment of pensions on divorce.