It is often the case that on the breakdown of a marriage there will be a number of separate sets of proceedings before the court. These may include Family Law Act 1996 proceedings if there are allegations of domestic abuse; financial remedy proceedings to deal with the division of the matrimonial assets; and Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989) proceedings. Where there is a dispute as to with whom the children will live, this may potentially have an impact upon the financial remedy proceedings. This is particularly the case where there are insufficient financial resources to provide for both parties’ housing needs. As the welfare of any minor children are the first consideration of the court in financial remedy proceedings (a lower standard than in ChA 1989 proceedings, where their welfare is the paramount consideration,

The pre-application requirement for attendance at a mediation information and assessment meeting (MIAM) is set out in the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, Pt 3, supplemented by FPR 2010, PD 3A. Attending a MIAM is a mandatory prerequisite to issuing a 'relevant family court application' pursuant to section 10(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014, unless one of the circumstances listed in FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 3.8(1), (2) applies. FPR 2010, SI 2010/2955, 3.6(1) provides that the MIAM requirement applies to any application to initiate the proceedings that are specified in FPR 2010,

Agent, intermediary or supplier? Your organisation can be held liable for acts of bribery by associated persons. The scope of this definition is broad and can embrace a wide range of business relationships, including agents and intermediaries. Agents and intermediaries are third parties engaged to provide services for or on behalf of the organisation or to represent your interests. This may include: • business consultants • sales agents • third parties retained in relation to government business or actions • introducers • facilitators • lawyers and other professional advisors, and • other third parties who provide services for or on behalf of an organisation in any capacity Whether a specific third party relationship is an agent or intermediary relationship is a matter of fact in each case. The determining factor is the degree to which the third party may act autonomously on behalf

When a Part 36 offer which relates to the whole of a claim is accepted, the claim is stayed on the terms of the offer: CPR 36.14(1), CPR 36.14(2). The effect is equivalent to a Tomlin order imposed by the rule. The court continues

There is no general requirement in the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) for bundles to be filed in advance of a directions hearing in the County Court. It is of course necessary to comply with any directions contained in the order listing the hearing or in any other court order. In a Part 7 claim, the court will require the parties to complete directions questionnaires and, if the case appears suitable for allocation to the fast track or multi-track, the notice of proposed allocation will require the parties to file proposed directions—CPR 26.3. In the absence of any such direction, parties may nonetheless, wish to consider whether the court would be assisted by the filing of draft directions. In a case allocated to the fast track,

CDD requirements for corporate clients The Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017), SI 2017/692, as amended, require that where the client is a body corporate you must: • obtain and verify: ◦ the name of the body corporate ◦ its company number or other registration number ◦ the address of its registered office, and if different, its principal place of business • take reasonable measures to determine and verify: ◦ the law to which the body corporate is subject, and its constitution (whether set out in its articles of association or other governing documents) ◦ the full names of the board of directors (or if there is no board, the members of the equivalent management body) and the senior persons responsible for the operations of the body corporate Further/differing requirements apply where the client is beneficially owned

As can be seen in our Model instructions for cancellation and model cancellation form—business-to-consumer, no specific wording 'mandatory withdrawal period' is included. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/3134 set out the legislative requirements. SI 2013/3134, reg 30 provides that for a service contract, 'the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day on which the contract is entered into'. The provisions for notice are set out in SI 2013/3134,

Section 248 of the Companies Act 2006 (CA 2006) requires that every company must cause minutes of all proceedings at meetings of its directors to be recorded. The records must be kept for at least ten years from the date of the meeting. CA 2006, s 1134 includes minutes in the statutory definition of ‘company records’. CA 2006, s 1135 then notes that company records may be kept in hard copy or electronic form, and may be arranged in such manner as the directors of the company think fit, provided the information in question is adequately recorded for future reference. However, where the records are kept in electronic form, they must be capable of being reproduced

You are required to retain matter files (paper or electronic) for a period of time after the conclusion of the matters. The length of time a file should be stored will be determined by the particular nature of the matter–see Practice Note: How to close a client matter—law

Under the old regime, where HMRC approved each new tax-advantaged scheme, companies operating tax-advantaged company share option plans (CSOPs), save as you earn schemes (SAYEs) and share incentive plans (SIPs) were originally obliged to provide HMRC with details of their group companies who had employees who were eligible to participate under the relevant plan, including updating HMRC when a group company

Service of documents in family proceedings is governed by Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, Pt 6. Save where an exception applies all documents to be served by a foreign government, judicial authority or British Consular authority must be accompanied by a translation. The translation must be: • in the official language of the country in which it is to be served, or • if there is more than one official language of that country, in any official language that is appropriate

Law firms must comply with the United Kingdom’s General Data Protection Regulation, Assimilated Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 when processing the personal data of prospective and actual clients (and indeed any living persons). This includes identifying and documenting a lawful basis for the processing. Personal data includes names, addresses, national insurance numbers, passport details, details of company directors (not the company itself), ie exactly the sort of information you will collect when carrying out electronic searches. There are six potential lawful grounds for processing personal data (Article 6(1) of the UK GDPR). The most relevant to electronic searches in this context are likely to be: • compliance with a legal obligation • legitimate interests, and • consent Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) guidance emphasises that you should: • determine your lawful ground(s) before starting to process personal data • document your decision and reasoning to help demonstrate compliance • include