Alison Fielden & Co. - News

We will have the following opening hours over Christmas and New Year:

• Tuesday 23 December: 8:30am to 5pm
• Wednesday 24 December to Sunday 28 December: CLOSED
• Monday 29 December: 8:30am to 5pm
• Tuesday 30 December: 8:30am to 5pm
• Wednesday 31 December: 8:30am to 12:30pm
• Thursday 1 January: CLOSED
• Friday 2 January: 8:30am to 5pm

The recently reported case of S v Y [2025] EWFC 333 (B) is a strong reminder to all family court users to ensure compliance with court orders.

In this case the husband had failed to comply with the court order requirement to file and serve his Form E with supporting documentation. The court initially attached a penal notice to the direction for disclosure, which is a threat of prison should the direction be ignored. On 7th October 2025 the court considered the wife's application to enforce the penal notice and found that the husband had wilfully failed to comply with the order, that his non-compliance was deemed deliberate and he was sentenced to prison for a period of 28 days.

It was the view of the court that a further suspension of the prison sentence would not achieve compliance and that imprisonment was necessary to demonstrate that court orders must be complied with.

The Government has announced its intention to change the parental rights law and presumptions contained in the Children Act 1989. It intends to repeal the presumption of parental involvement when parliamentary time allows.

Parental Rights and the Children Act 1989

The Children Act defines the concept of parental responsibility and says:

1. Who automatically has parental responsibility for a child when the child is born.
2. Who can acquire parental responsibility by agreement or court application.
3. Who gets parental responsibility if a child arrangement order is made in favour of a non parent.
4. How parental responsibility can be lost.
5. What authority is given to those with parental responsibility.

The Government does not intend to change the law on parental responsibility, but instead to shift the presumption of parental involvement.

Presumption of Parental Involvement enshrined in the Children Act 1989

The Children Act states that when the family court is considering making, varying or discharging some types of child law court orders, the judge is to presume that, unless the contrary is shown, the involvement of a parent in the child's life is in the child's best interest and will further their welfare.

The type of court orders to which this presumption applies includes:

1. Child arrangement order applications.
2. Specific issue order applications.
3. Prohibited steps orders applications.

The Government intends to repeal the presumption of parental involvement when partiamentary time allows.

When the presumption is no longer enshrined in the Children Act 1989, the judge determining some types of children law applications will not start from the premise or the assumption that the involvement of a parent in the child's life will further the child's welfare. Instead, a judge will need to:

1. Review and assess the evidence.
2. Consider the child's welfare and the child's best interests rather than assuming parental involvement is in the child's best interest.

The Government has announced in parliament that it intends to consult on legislative reform to support cohabiting couples by spring 2026.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Baroness Levitt KC, the Family Justice Minister, restated the Government's manifesto commitment to reform, saying that a consultation would take place in tandem with consulting on reforming the law surrounding financial provision on divorce. The Minister said that they are taking this approach to 'bring consistency and fairness across marriage, civil partnership and cohabitation, recognising that reforms in one area may have implications for the other'.

The Government has announced its intention to increase court fees by at least 3.2% from 8 April 2025. For example, the fee for applying for a divorce will increase to £612 from £593.

For more information, please see the GOV.UK news item.

We are once again proud sponsors of the annual Phoenix Festival in Cirencester this year. The free event, held in the Abbey Grounds in the town, brings together the best local musicians and this year is being held on the weekend of 24th and 25th August. For more details please see the Phoenix Festival website.

New rules under this Act require the Registrar of Companies to take steps to keep company records at Companies House accurate, to make sure that they do not create a false or misleading impression and prevent companies and others from carrying out or facilitating unlawful activities.

Measures include requiring those forming a new company to confirm that they do so for lawful purposes within the application. The application must also contain a statement that none of the subscribers is a disqualified director.

Email addresses must be provided and kept up to date, although these will not be publicly available.

An appropriate address must be registered for the company which means that documents sent there would be expected to come to the attention of the person acting on behalf of the company and the delivery is capable of being recorded by obtaining an acknowledgement of delivery. Therefore PO Box addresses are not permissible.

For more information on this and related topics, please see this month's article in Cirencester Scene or contact us for further information.

The Government have abandoned their previous proposal to make mediation a compulsory process for separating families.

Instead, they have proposed to now launch a new pilot focused on the provision of early legal advice. It is hoped that parties receiving quality legal advice at the outset of separation will be much more likely to come to an agreement, avoiding making an application to court and will be able to consider other means of resolution, including mediation.

There is an increasing drive for transparency in the family courts. In 2019 the President of the Family Division appointed a panel to investigate greater transparency in the family courts which reported in October 2021.

The President's foreword to the report reads:
"The present system in the Family Court whereby a journalist may attend any hearing but may not always report what they observe, is not sustainable. I have reached the conclusion that there needs to be a major shift in culture and process to increase the transparency in a number of respects."

Pilot schemes began in a number of courts in 2023 relating to children (both public law and private law cases) and from 29 January 2024 will be extended meaning that almost half of all family courts will be included, including all of the London Family Courts.

From 29 January 2024 a pilot scheme will also begin for the section of the family court that deals with financial claims on divorce and other similar claims.

We are delighted to be sponsoring the Snowman Trail in this year's Christmas in Cirencester event. Look out for the impressive carefully crafted snowmen with different coloured scarves around the town over the weekend of 25-26 November, plus much more going on.

Thanks to Cirencester Town Council and the many volunteers for making this memorable event happen for our town.

We are again one of the sponsors of the Advent Festival this year, specifically sponsoring The Snowman Trail.

We have mistakenly put an advertisement in the Cirencester Scene magazine referring to music and sound which we sponsored last year. To set the record straight we confirm that Wenn Townsend are sponsoring music and sound this year.

We are very sorry for this error.

From 31 October 2023 and for the first time since 2014, bankers in the UK will not be limited to a bonus of twice their base pay.

Whilst other financial regulations on pay and bonuses will remain, the UK seems to be heading back to the pre financial crash era of unlimited bonuses. No doubt therefore this will be an important consideration for couples who are separated/ing or are in the process of divorce where one spouse might now expect a significantly increased bonus.

We are delighted to be sponsoring the Phoenix Festival again this year. Cirencester's popular music and arts festival, held annually in the Abbey Grounds, is run by volunteers and showcases local talent. This year's event takes place on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August. For details, please see the Phoenix Festival website.

Please note that we no longer use the private post system operated by DX but will instead send mail via the usual post office service or courier as appropriate.

The Legal Ombudsman investigates complaints about service issues with lawyers once the lawyers' own procedures have been exhausted. From 1 April 2023 their time limits for doing so are changing.

Currently, the Legal Ombudsman expects complaints to be made to them within 6 years of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within 3 years of you realising there was a concern. You must also refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you.

However from 1 April 2023 the Legal Ombudsman will expect complaints to be made to them within a year of the date of the act or omission about which you are concerned or within a year of you realising there was a concern. The requirement to refer your concerns to the Legal Ombudsman within 6 months of our final response to you remains the same.

Please see our Complaints Policy for details of how and when to make a complaint.

After holding our prices for several years during the pandemic, we must now adjust these to meet rising costs. Our revised prices, effective from 1 February 2023, are based on an hourly rate of £240 plus VAT. Specific department guides can be found for Residential Conveyancing, Wills & Probate and Employment.

One of our Family Department solicitors, Steven Barratt, retired on 11 November 2022. He leaves with our grateful thanks for his long service to the firm and tireless commitment to his clients.

We are pleased to welcome our locum solicitor Joanna Wright who has many years' experience in Family Law matters, to look after Steven's clients going forward.

We were very happy to sponsor the Phoenix Festival again in the summer and are now looking forward to sponsoring the Advent Festival later this month. Watch this space for further details.

Due to the Bank Holiday for HRH Queen Elizabeth II's funeral our offices will be closed on Monday 19th September. We will re-open on Tuesday 20th September at 8:30am.

Resolution, a campaign organisation that represents 6,500 family justice professionals, has long championed the need to remove blame from the divorce process.

Their long-running campaign to allow no-fault divorce was successful when the government passed legislation in June 2020. The new arrangements come into force on April 6.

Previously, when a marriage broke down a husband and wife would have to blame each other, either citing adultery or producing details of the other's 'unreasonable behaviour'. This necessity can poison a previously amicable split and make discussions harder around important issues like family finances and arrangements where chlldren are involved.

The change brings England and Wales in line with Scotland where no-fault divorce was enacted in 2006. Scotland has seen no long-term increase in divorce rates since the reforms were introduced.

We are pleased again to be sponsoring the Advent Festival and Street Market, as we have been doing for some years. This year is a little different, given the restrictions caused by the pandemic and we will in particular be sponsoring the music and sound on the day of the main event, the Advent Street Market, on 27 November 2021. We look forward to seeing you there!

On the 26th March 2020 the Ministry of Justice launched the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. This scheme offers a payment of up to £500 towards the costs of family mediation for eligible cases (largely those family mediations concerning parenting issues). In launching this scheme, the Government is not only raising the profile of family mediation as a better way to resolve disputes between parents, but also encouraging parents to find solutions to relationship disputes away from the Courts rather than relying on a Judge to make decisions.

As lockdown restrictions are gradually reduced in England we are working towards bringing our staff back into the office on a more regular basis. We are preparing to welcome clients back into the office for normal appointments as soon as we can.

In the meantime current arrangements will continue and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please keep checking our website and Facebook page for further updates.

In line with current government restrictions our office is currently closed to visitors and clients. We have largely been working remotely and have been able to offer virtual client meetings via FaceTime or Microsoft Teams, and also some limited short face-to-face meetings outside e.g. for signing documents and handing over ID. These arrangements will continue.

When restrictions are eased again we hope to welcome clients and visitors back in person. Meanwhile remote working will continue.

Please keep checking our website and Facebook page for further updates.