Applications under the Married Women's Property Act 1882, s 17

Family weekly highlights—7 August 2025

This week's edition of the Family weekly highlights includes details of the third Family Procedure Rules 2010 Practice Direction update of 2025 and the High Court of Justice summer 2025 vacation notice. Recent decisions from the Court of Appeal on jurisdiction for divorce proceedings, fact-finding hearings in public children cases, wardship proceedings and enforcement of child arrangement orders are set out. A new flowchart setting out when the express financial remedy procedure applies is also set out.

Family Procedure Rules 2010 Practice Direction Update No 3 of 2025

The third Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010) Practice Direction (PD) update of 2025 has been issued, making amendments to two existing PDs, FPR 2010, PD 36Z (Pilot Scheme: Private Law Reform: Investigative Approach) together with FPR 2010, PD12B (Pilot: Private law reform: investigative approach), which is annexed to FPR 2010, PD 36Z. These existing PDs make provision for the Pathfinder pilot. Pathfinder is piloting, in selected courts, a new procedural approach to certain private law proceedings relating to children, in place of the Child Arrangements Programme. The PD amendments come into force on 14 August 2025.

Family weekly highlights—31 July 2025

This week's edition of the Family weekly highlights includes details of the speeches by the Master of Rolls and Lord Justice Birss at a Civil Procedure Rule Committee and Online Procedure Rule Committee event, the coming into force of the Arbitration Act 2025 and the minutes from the latest Family Procedure Rule Committee meeting. Analysis of the need to undertake a holistic risk assessment when making final care orders is set out, together with consideration of how to accommodate an asylum seeking child. Recent judgments on declarations of parentage and the use of expert reports in financial remedy proceedings are also considered.

The buck stops here—local authority fails to avoid legal responsibilities to house 18-year old (R(AAM) v London Borough of Bromley)

Local Government analysis: This case concerned an application for judicial review for an asylum-seeking qualifying young person requesting accommodation from the local authority in circumstances where the local authority declined to accommodate him and instead directed him to asylum support accommodation. The claim was allowed. The court found that that the support powers of the Secretary of State for the Home Department under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 were residual and therefore the local authority was not entitled to look to the availability of such support when determining whether to support a young person under sections 24 and 24A of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989 ). Written by Silvia Nicolaou Garcia, associate at Bindmans LLP.