Lawcast #208: Natasha Phillips of Researching Reform on topical family law issues
Today I am talking to Natasha Phillips, a non-practising barrister and author of the Researching Reform blog – an excellent and thoughtfully constructed resource for practitioners and others interested in the field of family law.
Natasha describes her blog in the following terms…”Researching Reform is a working project and an online platform dedicated towards simplifying the family justice system and finding solutions to the current problems faced by families and practitioners alike. Researching Reform produces events, podcasts and articles all relating to the practical realities of divorce as experienced in the family justice system and beyond. We are dedicated to the welfare of the child and this central theme runs through every project we work on.
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Useful links
As Natasha says… “DadsHouse and Researching Reform wanted to explain why we felt a nationwide tour highlighting the need to support loving single fathers was so important, so we decided to put together this policy document, explaining just that. It’s not at all boring as far as policy documents go. In fact, we think it’s quite zingy…… and if you thought we decided to launch a nationwide tour so that we could have oodles of fun and giggle a lot, you would be wrong. So wrong.
Have a look…
News articles referred to in the podcast:
Telegraph: Gay marriage raises prospect of disestablishment, says Church of England
HuffPo: Gay Marriage Branded ‘Deviant’ By Ulster Unionist Peer
Independent: IoS exclusive: Problem families told – ‘Stop blaming others’
Eric Pickles tells IoS he will pay councils to end the ‘it’s not my fault’ culture by targeting truants and jobless
Guardian: No-fault divorces ‘should be standard’
England and Wales’s most senior family law judge says couples should be granted a quick legal separation without shame
Forced marriage to become a criminal offence
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I’d like to thank Lawtel, Westlaw, Cassons For Counsel, City University Law School, David Phillips & Partners Solicitors, Inksters Solicitors, Iken, LBC Wise Counsel, Carrs Solicitors, JMW Solicitors – Manchester, Pannone, BPP Law School and Cellmark for sponsoring the the free student materials on Insite Law – appreciated.
In association with The Lawyer
With thanks to the Law Society for sponsoring the Law Review Weekly (starting this week) and my Lawcasts
[…] You can access the podcast here – we should probably apologise in advance for talking too fast, making a couple of mistakes (we need to say sorry to the NIESR, as we called them the NISER….) and laughing, probably a little too loudly … […]
I just listened to this over the weekend. I do find it difficult to argue against the common liberal principles and policies expressed.
I will try though by making one thought through observation.
It’s like not being able to have economic union without political union, there are some unpleasant truths underlying the polite views expressed in this podcast.
The main one being, that if you have No Fault Divorce, you undermine marriage by effectively making it legalised prostitution and the rest, including the vows valueless.
Not that I disagree with that, indeed, I agree, although I do not agree with the EU, I just think people should be upfront in what they are arguing and less Tony Blair like with their smoke and mirrors. By promoting no fault divorce you undermine marriage, which is fine for me as a socialist, but for you guys who like your daughters’ looked after by husbands, you are undermining that possibility through reducing the number of marriages by promoting no fault divorce, as in the US. Just an observation and my view (bourne – sorry for spelling – out by the numbers over the last 50 years).
Perhaps I should clarify what I mean a bit. If you have no fault divorce, then basically there is no point in having any marriage vows as they are worthless. Essentially you are making the whole thing a business transaction.