What is the difference between a ‘QLR’ and a QLR?
It's Friday. I've been staring at a screen all day and my eyes have gone funny from scrolling through spreadsheets. I need a change of scene before resuming the trawl. Or failing that a change of topic. Aha. I'll tackle that QLR judgment. I tell you now, I am perplexed by this one. I've been mulling it over in the back of my brain all week and its got me awl of a muddle. In the back of my brain I have been thinking up amusing alternative meanings for 'QLR'....imaginative unabbreviations if you will. Quite Limited Role. Question Lots. Really? Questions Lack Relevance? Questioning Like Rumpole Questioning Lite. Representation? Quite Literally Ridiculous... QLR Law: Resources? Quash Litigants' Rights Quell Litigant Rebellion Quite Like Representation Quixotic, Lost, Rare... Questions Largely Rhetorical Quizzical Looks Required Quick, Let's Run.... QLR Lost? Right.... Enough nonsense. To the case! Which is: K v P (Criminal Solicitor as Court-Appointed QLR) [2025] EWFC 321. (You can tell...
Joining the dots…
Last week the Public Accounts Committee published a damning report telling us that family justice was failing families, that delay was an endemic problem, and that the system was fragmented, rubbish with data, lacked transparency and accountability, and as a result was inefficient. No surprises there. None of it is new. People have been shouting it into the void for years. The report drew particular attention to a shortage of District Judges and social workers, and to the failure to get on with implementing Pathfinder nationally. Whilst there isn't much to quibble about in the conclusions reached, notably missing is any focus on the resource issues that are a key part of the context to those delays and failures. If you don't fund a thing properly it ain't gonna work properly. The Family Law Bar Association provided evidence to the Committee which has been published as part of the report here. Whilst welcoming the points and recommendations that were made, they also say It is...
Colleagues, we have a problem
Harriet Harman KC's report is out. It brings with it a complicated mix of depression and optimism: depression (but not surprise) at how bad things are, and optimism because this report was commissioned by the Bar Council on our behalf and is now being embraced by it. They do so buoyed by a groundswell of support for action and change. We hope that other bodies who also are required to do their part will step up to the plate. The BSB for one - I haven't seen any immediate response from them (though their home page does link to a 'new' page on bullying and harassment. There was one section of the report which left me feeling more pessimistic than anticipated, and that was the section about the judges (Chapter 10). I didn't feel optimistic about that. Joshua Rozenberg has done a summary of the report here, so rather than repeat that I thought I'd focus on Chapter 10, which Joshua doesn't deal with in any detail. This is what Harriet Harman says about the judicial response: There is,...
Staying Sane in Family Law
The lovely people at Bath Publishing* are running a series of workshops to launch a new book they are publishing by Anne Marie Carvalho. The book is called Staying Sane in Family Law – and the name Anne Marie Carvalho is one which often crops up in the context of wellbeing discussions. For a fee of £150 you get to attend one of the workshops and your own copy of the book. If I wasn't in court elsewhere on the day of the one local to me I would be going. For those interested details are here: https://bathpublishing.com/products/staying-sane-in-family-law-seminars * Declaration of interest. They are lovely because they publish my book Family Court Without a Lawyer, so obviously have very good taste in authors. I haven't read the book, but I do know that Anne Marie is highly respected in her field. And anything that can help us stay sane (or regain some sanity) in the crazy world of family law is A. Good. Thing.
Court Service Cover Up?
NB I think this post was accidentally published yesterday in half finished form, something that has never happened before. It probably didn't make a lot of sense. However, this is now the tidied and completed version. The BBC Headline reads: Courts service 'covered up' IT bug that caused evidence to go missing The report claims that the upshot is that 'judges in civil, family and tribunal courts will have made rulings on cases when evidence was incomplete.' This news is pretty alarming, isn't it? But also somewhat impenetrable. What does it actually mean? What was missing? How often did it happen? How important was it and did judges know information was missing? Because all we have is a news report about a leaked internal report, the detail is pretty much absent. The report tells us that the software concerned is 'known variously as Judicial Case Manager, MyHMCTS or CCD - is used to manage evidence and track cases before the courts. It is used by judges, lawyers, case workers and...
About this blog
“Pink Tape” isn’t just about family law. I post about topics that interest me, which mostly revolve around family law, but also include non-legal family-related topics as well as unrelated subjects. I hope this blog will convince at least one person that not all of us in the legal profession are money-hungry sharks. Some of us are actually quite nice. Additionally, I aim to provide useful information about family law for those working in the field without being too heavy or boring.
The primary goal of the blog is to improve the quality of public information and discussions about legal issues.
I understand that not everyone is a fan of “Pink Tape” or family lawyers in general.
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Blog Posts
What is the difference between a ‘QLR’ and a QLR?
It's Friday. I've been staring at a screen all day and my eyes have gone funny from scrolling through spreadsheets. I need a change of scene before resuming the trawl. Or failing that a change of topic. Aha. I'll tackle that QLR judgment. I tell you now, I am...
Joining the dots…
Last week the Public Accounts Committee published a damning report telling us that family justice was failing families, that delay was an endemic problem, and that the system was fragmented, rubbish with data, lacked transparency and accountability, and as a result...
Colleagues, we have a problem
Harriet Harman KC's report is out. It brings with it a complicated mix of depression and optimism: depression (but not surprise) at how bad things are, and optimism because this report was commissioned by the Bar Council on our behalf and is now being embraced by it....
Staying Sane in Family Law
The lovely people at Bath Publishing* are running a series of workshops to launch a new book they are publishing by Anne Marie Carvalho. The book is called Staying Sane in Family Law – and the name Anne Marie Carvalho is one which often crops up in the context of...
Court Service Cover Up?
NB I think this post was accidentally published yesterday in half finished form, something that has never happened before. It probably didn't make a lot of sense. However, this is now the tidied and completed version. The BBC Headline reads: Courts service 'covered...
Must D.A.S.H.
The BBC ran a story this week wherein MP Jess Phillips complains that the DASH risk assessment has 'obvious problems' and 'doesn't work'. From a quick read the first impression is that the tool itself is deficient, but that isn't the whole story. The piece also...
How much expectation can you fit in one suitcase?
Well, here I am in the interstitial space between my last case of the summer and the ceremonial packing of the suitcase for ‘the holiday’. The holiday into which I will mentally pack all my hopes and dreams and wellbeing needs, and both more activity and more rest...
A plea for some self restraint
I don't want to sound like your mother, but I can't help noticing that a surprising number of family lawyers have found the ColdPlay accidental affair reveal to be irresistible fodder for a spot of marketing. And as yet another post pops into my LinkedIn feed this...
Still here…
There hasn't been any Pink Tape email for a long time... It isn't entirely because I've not posted anything - I have, in fact, posted a few things....In June I posted four posts - averaging one a week is not quite the rate I was going in the heyday of Pink Tape, but...
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