Family Court hearings during the COVID-19 outbreak

Alison Cantor, divorce solicitor at Holmes & Hills, discusses the impact of COVID-19 (Coronavirus) on those in the middle of formal Family Law proceedings.

If you have Family Court proceedings underway, such as Divorce, Financial Remedy or Children Act applications, here is what will happen:

• The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane has issued Guidance to “Keep Business Going Safely”. The aim is to keep functioning as so your proceedings should not be halted or delayed.
• The default position is that all Family Court hearings will be conducted remotely via email, telephone conference or Skype etc. This should be possible even for emergency hearings
• Where fairness and justice require a Court based hearing, and it is safe to do so, this will be arranged.
• Not all Courts will be used for court-based hearings.

Holmes and Hills Solicitors’specialist Family Law Department will keep all clients fully informed as to what will happen to their particular forthcoming hearing. If logging into a conference call yourself is not possible or convenient, we can make arrangements for you to come to one of our offices for a telephone hearing with the Court. Then we can take your instructions during the hearings as normal, but we will ensure you are sitting at a safe distance from your solicitor.  If you cannot or do not feel comfortable coming in we will take your instructions remotely via telephone.

You can still make new applications as these are initially dealt with by post or online and hearings will be listed as necessary by the Court as above. Divorce applications do not require any hearings other than in exceptional circumstances.

Get expert advice

We appreciate this is a very difficult time for families and our Family Team are still working to provide a full and normal service to clients in relation to divorce, family and children matters. The specialist team of Family Law solicitors at Holmes & Hills continue to service existing and new clients and are conducting appointments via telephone call.

If you require advice or guidance on a Family Law issue, do not hesitate to contact us on 01376 320456 (Essex) or 01787 275275 (Suffolk).