The President of the Family Division, Andrew McFarlane, has launched a two week consultation looking at the types of family court hearings currently being used to hear family cases.

The consultation is open to anyone with experience of the family court or court of protection during the pandemic. This includes public and private family law proceedings, and financial remedy proceedings in divorce and separation cases.

The research will look at remote, hybrid and in-person hearings in the family courts in England and Wales.

The survey will be the third of its kind since the first remote hearings were launched 15 months ago in response to the pandemic and social distancing measures.

The research, which is being carried out by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, aims to “glean insights that will inform how the courts should operate during the ‘recovery’ period,” following the relaxation of social distancing measures in England and Wales.

The press release can be accessed here.

The survey can be accessed here.