Shows
The Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersNon-court dispute resolution in financial remedies proceedingsOur Family Law Pod is created by our Family and Divorce team, and provides news, tips and insights around current family law topics, and discusses the implications of key cases and guidance. Useful for anyone involved in the family court, in particular busy solicitors.
Episode 17: Non-court dispute resolution in financial remedies proceedings
In this episode Georgina Swinglehurst and Jenny Wilson discuss changes to the Family Procedure Rules relating to NCDR and the court’s expectations regarding parties’ use of NCDR. They also consider a range of NCDR options including tips and insights in relation to Privat...
2026-01-2839 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCase law update #4 - Parties to discharge of SGO and approach to fact-finding decisionsNew Family Law Pod from St John's Chambers
Our Family Law Pod is created by our Family and Divorce team, and provides news, tips and insights around current family law topics, and discusses the implications of key cases and guidance. Useful for anyone involved in the family court, in particular busy solicitors.
Episode 16: Case law update #4 – Parties to discharge of SGO and approach to fact-finding decisions
In this episode, Chelsea Bartlett discusses a short and sweet judgment concerning the automatic and appropriate parties on an application to discharge a Special Guardianship Order. Sophie Smith-H...
2025-12-1522 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCase law update #3 – pFDR privilege and adverse inferenceOur Family Law Pod is created by our Family and Divorce team, and provides news, tips and insights around current family law topics, and discusses the implications of key cases and guidance. Useful for anyone involved in the family court, in particular busy solicitors.
Episode 14: Case law update #3 – pFDR privilege and adverse inferences
Welcome back for another episode in our Case Law Update series! In this episode, Chelsea and Sophie, of our Family Law team, discuss two recent Financial Remedy cases which consider the importance of FDR/pFDR privilege, and the need to sufficiently evidence an a...
2025-11-1315 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCovert Recordings in Family Proceedings: Part 2Our Family Law Pod is created by our Family and Divorce team, and provides news, tips and insights around current family law topics, and discusses the implications of key cases and guidance. Useful for anyone involved in the family court, in particular busy solicitors.
Episode 14: Covert Recordings in Family Proceedings: Part 2
In this episode, which follows on from their earlier podcast, Covert Recordings in Family Proceedings: Part 1, Vivien Croly is joined again by Katie Hanson, Senior Associate Solicitor from VWV where they review the updated FJC Guidance on Covert Recording, which was released in May 2025.
2025-10-2915 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCase law update #2 – private law children – return orders and costsOur Family Law Pod is created by our Family and Divorce team, and provides news, tips and insights around current family law topics, and discusses the implications of key cases and guidance. Useful for anyone involved in the family court, in particular busy solicitors.
Episode 13: Case Law Update #2 – private law children – return orders and costs
This is the second episode in our Case Law Update series and today Chelsea and Vivien are delving into two recent Children Law judgments. The cases highlighted in this episode concern the treatment of a child’s wishes and feeling in an applica...
2025-09-1720 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCase law update #1 – financial remedies - litigation misconduct and capacityWelcome to the first episode in our new Case Law Update series. In this episode, Chelsea and Vivien, of our Family and Divorce team, discuss two recent Financial Remedy cases which consider an extreme example of litigation misconduct, and the difficulties encountered when one party in proceedings lacks capacity to litigate.
The full citations for the cases discussed are:
TA v SB [2025] EWFC 61 (B)
Mary-Jane Grace and Ian Douglas Grace [2025] EWFC 37 (B)
2025-07-1616 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCovert Recordings in Family Proceedings: Part 1Part 1 was recorded prior to the publication of the FJC Guidance. Part 2, which will consider the new guidance, is coming soon!
In this episode, Vivien Croly is joined by Katie Hanson, Senior Associate Solicitor at VWV to discuss covert recordings in family law proceedings. They consider the issues faced by practitioners when dealing with different types of covert recordings as well as looking at case law where covert recordings have, and have not been relied upon.
2025-05-1631 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersThe new Alienating Behaviours GuidanceZoë Saunders and Lucy Reed KC discuss the recently published guidance from the Family Justice Council: Responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour (https://www.judiciary.uk/related-offices-and-bodies/advisory-bodies/family-justice-council/resources-and-guidance/parental-alienation/). Zoë and Lucy summarise and explain the approach mandated by the guidance, and consider what practical difference it may make, for parents accused of alienating behaviours for those who wish to raise it as an issue, and for those representing the parties or the children in such cases. Discussion points include the co-occurrence of a...
2024-12-2337 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersInstructing CounselIn this episode, Georgina Swinglehurst and Glen Pritchard discuss all things to do with instructing counsel – ideally when should solicitors get counsel involved? Who should they instruct on each case? What makes a great brief? Having both previously worked in solicitors’ firms, they also share their top tips on how to build the best relationships between counsel and instructing solicitors.
2024-12-0927 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersMatrimonialisation: A sea change or a storm in a tea cup?Bethany Scarsbrook and Georgina Swinglehurst of St John's Chambers Family & Divorce team grapple with the topical issue of when an asset is deemed to have become matrimonialised. They consider the case law leading up to Standish v Standish [2024] EWCA Civ 567, before analysing whether the Court of Appeal decision fell into error, and considering the extent of the potential ramifications, particularly in light of the pending appeal to the UKSC.
2024-11-2121 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersWhat is the position on domestic abuse as ‘conduct’ in financial remedy proceedings?In this episode Sophie Smith-Holland and Chelsea Bartlett will discuss the implications of the case N v J [2024] EWFC 184, in respect of if and how to run domestic abuse allegations as ‘conduct’ in financial remedy proceedings.
2024-10-1833 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersFrom parental alienation to alienating behavioursIn this episode, Sarah Phillimore and Asha Groves take a look at the recent shift away from the label of parental alienation and towards a definition of alienating behaviours in case law and guidance. They consider how to approach these cases in practice both now and in the future with particular consideration of the use of unregulated experts in this area.
2024-09-2632 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersCosts in Financial Remedy ProceedingsIn this podcast, Jack Harris and Vivien Croly of our Family & Divorce team discuss the topic of costs in financial remedy proceedings, including a refresher on the different costs regimes and their application, top tips when preparing for, or engaging with, an application for costs, and an overview of some specific costs-related caselaw.
Cases discussed here
2024-06-1425 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s Chambers50 Years at the Bar: Christopher Sharp KCOn the approach to his fiftieth anniversary at the Bar, St John’s Chambers founder Christopher Sharp KC talks to Ben Handy about his distinguished career, reflecting on life as a pupil in the 70s, the changes and developments he has seen over the decades, the cases he has won (and lost!), what St John’s means to him, and his plans for the next 50 years.
2024-05-1353 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersLearning Disabled Parents in Care ProceedingsIn this podcast, Abigail Bond and Sarah Phillimore of St John's Chambers Family & Divorce team discuss the issues relating to learning disabled parents in care proceedings and what has changed in approach and practice over the past 20 years. They will also look at how far we have come since the The Good Practice Guidance on Working with Learning Disabled Parents published in 2007.
2023-10-1631 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersDomestic abuse in financial remedy proceedingsIn this podcast, Jack Harris and Vivien Croly of St John's Chambers Family & Divorce team look at domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings.
2023-07-0419 minThe Family Law Pod from St John’s ChambersVulnerability in children and financial proceedingsIn this podcast, Lucy Reed KC and Jacqueline Humphreys of St John's Chambers Family & Divorce team review the developing law on participation directions under Pt3A of the Family Proceeding Rules to better achieve access to justice for vulnerable people, and consider how principles that are mainly being worked out in the context of children proceedings can and should also be applied within financial remedy proceedings.
2023-06-0636 min