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Family law weekly: QLR cross-examination guidance, new family–criminal disclosure protocol, key child law judgments and public children e-bundles update (England and Wales), 29 February 2024

Published on: 29 February 2024

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Practice and procedure

Cross-examination when no qualified legal representative is available (Re: Z (Prohibition on Cross-examination: No QLR))

The President of the Family Division’s ruling in Re: Z (Prohibition on Cross-examination: No QLR) [2024] EWFC 22; [2024] All ER (D) 99 (Feb) sets out what should happen where the court has, under Part IVB of the Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984 (MFPA 1984), ordered the appointment of a qualified legal representative (QLR) for a party, but none can be secured. The court must then consider whether it should itself put questions on that party’s behalf and, if so, the judgment offers guidance on doing this without being drawn ‘into the arena’ or sacrificing the ‘advantage of calm and dispassionate observation’. Although there is an expectation that more QLRs will become available, a severe shortfall persists and, with a rise in litigants in person, many courts are confronted with the difficult question of whether, in the interests of justice, they should assume this ‘unnatural and tricky’ function.

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