March 2021 / 19 posts found
Separating couples to be given £500 vouchers to prevent child custody battles going to court
WARRING parents will be given cash to stop them taking their bitter ‘tug of love’ child custody battles to court. Divorcing couples will be given £500 vouchers to spend on mediation to stop them dragging their kids through distressing court disputes. 2 Separating couples will be offered mediation vouchers to avoid court custody battlesCredit: Alamy The Ministry of Justice, which is rolling out the scheme, said 70 per cent of couples who used the service settled their rows out of court. Courts Minister, Lord Wolfson QC, said: “Mediation is often a quicker, cheaper and less stressful way of resolving disputes, […]
Johnny Depp: Actor to find out if he can appeal against High Court ruling that he beat Amber Heard
Johnny Depp will find out tomorrow whether he can bring an appeal against a damning High Court ruling that he assaulted ex-wife Amber Heard and left her in ‘fear for her life’. Following a three-week trial in July last year, Mr Justice Nicol dismissed the Hollywood star’s libel claim against the publisher of The Sun, finding that an April 2018 column calling Mr Depp a ‘wife beater’ was ‘substantially true’. The judge ruled Mr Depp, 57, assaulted Ms Heard, 34, on a dozen occasions and put her in ‘fear for her life’ three times. The actor has asked the Court […]
Does divorce change your personality? New psychology research suggests it does not
A new study published in the journal Individual and Personality Differences indicates that divorce is not a consistent predictor of personality change. “We were interested in testing the folk wisdom that experiencing a divorce changes you,” said study author Sascha Spikic, a researcher-lector at the PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Belgium. The researchers examined data from three large longitudinal studies: the Understanding Society survey in the United Kingdom, the Socio-Economic Panel Study in Germany, and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. There were 37,199 observations in total. Although some people did experience changes in […]
Law firm triggers litigation proceedings against Hargreaves over Woodford collapse
Hargreaves Lansdown could be taken to court for its continued cheerleading of the Woodford Equity Income fund up until its collapse as it receives its first letter triggering litigation. RGL Management confirmed on Monday it had launched formal proceedings against the FTSE 100 platform giant to recover losses suffered by investors following the collapse of the £3.7bn Woodford Equity Income fund. Simultaneously it is pursuing a claim against Link Fund Solutions, the fund’s authorised corporate director, for its role in the fund’s demise. The claims will centre around the losses sustained directly as a result of the collapse of Neil Woodford’s fund, since renamed LF Equity Income, and […]
Brad Pitt is heartbroken after abuse allegation from Angelina Jolie is leaked amid custody battle
Brad Pitt is saddened it was leaked that Angelina Jolie is now ‘prepared to provide proof’ of domestic abuse in the couple’s contentious custody battle. An alleged altercation between son Maddox, 19, and Brad, 57, in 2016 was said to have been the final straw for Jolie, 45, who filed paperwork indicating that both she and her children are willing to offer testimony and ‘proof and authority’ in support of her allegations, according to documents obtained by The Blast. Now Pitt is ‘heartbroken that Angelina has gone that route. There’s a lot of emotion left after their marriage,’ a source close to […]
How to get over a break-up or divorce and why grief is something you need to deal with to move on
When the dust of a divorce or break-up has settled you can draw important lessons from the the experience. Photo: Shutterstock Every romantic experience – no matter how good or bad – is important to personal development. More often than not, we come out of a relationship as an evolved version of ourselves. A break-up or divorce is an earth-shattering experience that would make anyone feel like their world has come to an end, but we need to face all the ups and downs that come with these critical junctures before truly moving on to the next phase. Get the […]
Call for vulnerable victims to give video evidence amid courts backlog
Up to 10,000 vulnerable victims facing long delays for trials should be allowed to give evidence by video in an attempt to stop them falling out of the system, according to the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales. Dame Vera Baird warned of a collapse in confidence in the criminal justice system and an exodus of complainants if unprecedented trial delays were not urgently addressed. She accused the government of not being sufficiently ambitious in its efforts to tackle a backlog of more than 50,000 criminal cases at crown courts in England and Wales. The government has promised to open […]
Campaigners welcome extra protections in domestic abuse bill
Campaigners have welcomed news that ministers will make non-fatal strangulation a specific criminal offence punishable by five years’ imprisonment. The government confirmed on Monday that it would introduce the legislation as an amendment to the domestic abuse bill being debated in parliament. Legislation will also be strengthened against controlling or coercive behaviour, making it no longer a requirement for abusers and victims to cohabit. Laws to target revenge porn will also be expanded to include threats to disclose intimate images. Nogah Ofer, a lawyer at the Centre for Women’s Justice, which has campaigned for tougher laws on non-fatal strangulation, said […]
Can employees' personal devices be searched as part of litigation disclosure?
The Court of Appeal’s judgment in Phones 4U v EE Limited could have profound implications for companies whose employees use personal devices for professional purposes.
The Court of Appeal recently upheld a decision of the High Court that a party, as part of its disclosure obligations, should request that employees and former employees hand over their personal devices to be searched by independent IT consultants for documents relevant to the issues in dispute. In Phones 4U Limited v EE Limited [2021] EWCA Civ 116, the High Court determined that it had jurisdiction to make such an order where the […]
Miscarriage of justice body’s workload doubled despite severe cuts – report
The miscarriage of justice watchdog has suffered the “biggest cut” of any part of the criminal justice system since 2010 and its caseload has more than doubled over the same period, according to a parliamentary investigation. Two years ago the all-party parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice commissioned an inquiry into the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) after the number of cases of people claiming to be wrongly convicted sent to the court of appeal crashed – from an average of 33 referrals a year to just a dozen in 2017 or less than 1% of the people who applied […]