Tag Archive for: family court procedure

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This topic explains how family court procedure operates in practice, including the rules, stages, and expectations that govern private law children cases. It is designed to help parties understand what the court requires at each step and how procedural decisions affect the progress and outcome of a case.

Articles under this tag support litigants in person by breaking down procedural requirements, common errors, and how to engage with hearings, directions, evidence, and applications in a structured and compliant way.

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JSH Law Resources and Guidance for Litigants in Person – practical family court information explained in plain English.© 2026 JSH Law Ltd. All rights reserved.

McKenzie Friend vs Running Your Case: Where the Legal Line Now Sits After Mazur

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There is a clear legal line between support and running a case. After Mazur, understanding that distinction is essential for litigants in person.

Access to Justice Will Not Improve Until Litigants in Person Are Treated as First-Class Legal Tech Users

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Litigants in person are no longer the exception — they are the system. This article explores why courts, regulators, and legal-tech designers must start building for LiPs if access to justice is to mean anything in practice.
Freelance family court support offered remotely on an hourly basis for solicitors, barristers, law firms and litigants in person.

Freelance Family Court Support | Remote | Hourly

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Practical, remote family court support on an hourly basis for solicitors, barristers, law firms and litigants in person navigating complex private law and safeguarding matters.

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Parent reviewing and making notes on Cafcass recommendations for family court proceedings© 2026 JSH Law Ltd. All rights reserved.

13. Understanding Cafcass recommendations

A Cafcass recommendation can strongly influence child-arrangements proceedings, but it does not decide the case. This technical guide explains how to trace a recommendation back to its evidence and welfare analysis, distinguish allegations from findings and prepare a focused response if you disagree.

16. Managing professional concerns raised mid-proceedings

New safeguarding information can emerge at any stage of child-arrangements proceedings. This guide explains how to distinguish professional concern from established fact, trace the underlying evidence, understand section 16A and safeguarding duties and identify when the Family Court may need to reconsider existing directions.

17. Disputed safeguarding narratives

Family cases can contain sharply different safeguarding accounts. This guide explains how to separate allegations from evidence and findings, trace professional source material, identify patterns of alleged coercive control and work out which disputed facts genuinely require determination.

20. Preparing for directions hearings

A directions hearing is about getting a family case ready for the decision still to be made. This guide explains how to audit the existing order, identify live issues, prepare focused disclosure and evidence requests and ask for workable directions with realistic deadlines.

24. Managing adjournments and delays

Delay is presumed potentially harmful to children, but some adjournments are necessary for fairness, safeguarding or essential evidence. This guide explains how the Family Court balances those factors, how to raise an adjournment properly and how to prevent a case drifting without purpose.

26. In-court support as a McKenzie Friend (subject to permission)

A McKenzie Friend can provide valuable support to someone representing themselves in Family Court, but the litigant remains in control of their own case. This guide explains reasonable assistance, confidentiality, court permission, rights of audience and the boundary between support and legal representation.
Two people reviewing and annotating documents at a desk with a laptop and organised files

32. Preparing court-compliant bundles

Under the revised PD27A, a family court hearing bundle must be relevant, structured, navigable and correctly filed. This Matter examines responsibility, the 350-page default limit, distinct financial remedy and children-case pagination, deadlines and disputed evidence.