President of the Family Division highlights changes required when drafting children and financial orders
The President of the Family division in England and Wales, Sir Andrew McFarlane, criticised how drafting orders had become a ‘highly adversarial and confrontational process.’
He underlined the need for drafting orders in private law, including the first order made in any children’s case, should contain the ‘key information’. However, subsequent orders ‘should be in short form, omitting lengthy narrative material’.
Private law orders can include those decisions in relation to litigation about children, and about financial affairs. The latest memorandum emphasised that when an order follows a hearing, its terms must reflect the result of the hearing, ‘no more, no less’. He also emphasised that it is unnecessary in a financial remedy order to record any background matters and that the order should not be subject to lengthy delays.
You can read the full Memorandum at the Judiciary website through this link, dated 10th November 2021.
There is also a Law Gazette article ‘McFarlane issues double warning to family lawyers’ on this topic, dated 12th November 2021accessible through this link.