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Important Notice - Applying for or renewing membership of the Family Lawyer's Association of Ireland
Please contact graham@hanlonandco.com if you wish to renew membership or become a member.
Please do not use our online registration system until further notice. We are working to resolve these issues as a matter of urgency
The Executive Committee
Submission on Establishment of Child Maintenance Review Group & Establishment of FLA Sub-committee on Child Maintaenance
The FLA notes the annoucement of Minister Doherty of the establishment of a Child Maintenance Review Group to examine a number of issues regarding child maintenance.
Please click here for a link to the press release outlining the annoucement.
The FLA intends to make a submission with regard to the above and welcomes the views of members.
Please note the there is a FLA Child Maintenance Sub-committee being established. Raghnal O’Riordan SC will Chair this sub-committee and the co-ordinator and FLA liaison will be Dr. Sarah Fennell BL.
For the convenience of all who partcipated in the webinar held on the 7th May 2020 please see below the book referenced by Muriel Walls at that webinar.
FLA Webinar Series - May, June and July 2020
Please find below details of the Family Lawyers’ Association of Ireland (FLA) webinar series for May, June & July 2020. In the context of the current unusual circumstances, these webinars are open to all and are free of charge. Please note that our future webinars will be open to Members of the Association only and will be recorded in order that Members may have access after the live webinar.
If you have queries in relation to Membership of the Association, please contact Graham Hanlon, Hon. Secretary, graham@hanlonandco.com
1. FLA CPD Lecture Series
Insolvency and Family Law (webinar)
10th June 2020 at 2 p.m. (2 hours)
Chairperson: Her Honour Judge Susan Ryan
2.00 p.m. Introduction (Paul McCarthy SC)
2.05 p.m. Keith Farry BL
3.05 p.m. Eugene McDarby (PIP)
3.30 p.m. Q & A
4.00 p.m. close
CPD points: 2
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fl1OfuxHSWibwm3Kkw0huw
2. FLA Breakfast Briefing series (now webinar)
Family Law Act, 1995 Part III
16th June 2020 at 10 a.m. (1 hour)
10.00 a.m. Nuala E Jackson SC (45 mins)
10.45 a.m. Q & A (15 mins)
CPD points: 1
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rNfbVFBgSZ6qaGcwmwmcng
FLA Webinar Series - July 2020
Please find below details of the Family Lawyers’ Association of Ireland (FLA) webinar series for July 2020.
If you have queries in relation to Membership of the Association, please contact Graham Hanlon, Hon. Secretary, graham@hanlonandco.com
3. FLA Breakfast briefing series
Childcare Law Update (webinar)
Gareth Noble, solicitor.
7th July 2020 8:30am (approximately 1 hour)
Paper followed by Q&A
CPD points: 1
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__yUwvTDiR26a3BBnJGhYpg
4. FLA CPD Lecture Series
Data Protection and Children (webinar)
Jeanne Kelly, solicitor, LK Shields.
Thursday, 16th July 2020 at 4.30 p.m. (1.5 hours)
4.30 p.m. Introduction
4.35 p.m. Lecture
5.30 p.m. Q & A and panel discussion
CPD points: 1.5
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_fxiCTjv-SViMf5J68pX5xg
If you wish to register for any or all of these webinars, click on the relevant link above. Our platform allows for 500 attendees.
You can also follow us on Twitter - @lawyers_ireland
Very best wishes and we hope you will be able to join us at some of these events.
Nuala E Jackson SC
Chair, Family Lawyers Association
FLA Annual Circuit Conference 2020
The FLA would like to thank all the participants of the 2020 FLA Annual Circuit Conference which was delivered remotely on Monday 27th April 2020.
Papers are now available for FLA members in the CPD section of the members area.
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FLA Covid-19 Response Steering Group - Update 20th April 2020
This Steering Group was established to try to co-ordinate the responses of the FLA on behalf of its membership to the crisis thrust upon us. It was established to lobby, to innovate, and to give prominence to the FLA as a highly active, visible and trusted body to the Court Service, to the Bar Council, the Law Society, the Judiciary and wider.
The committee has issued an update to all members on the beginning of the new legal term.
As part of the committee's role it will this week re-appraise the situation which confronts the entire family law community.
We expect that an announcement will be made by Government on Friday week or so about the shutdown; whether it will be continued, or whether it will be relaxed and if so, to what extent.To contribute to the debate in Government and wider, the committee intends to review the document it published some weeks ago entitled “Future Functioning of the Courts’ and to reissue it, revised and updated by the 24th April. We invite ideas from the entire membership as to how the business of the Courts could be re-established post 5 May. Given that the predominance of family law litigation is at District and Circuit Court level, suggestions for these Court’s particularly are invited.
Please let us have your suggestion (bullet points not essays!), by Thursday of this week, the 23rd April at the latest. Please do not assume that your ideas have already been thought of by anyone else; please do not assume that your ideas don’t matter. We particularly want to hear from practitioners on each and every circuit across the country. Every idea, no matter how seemingly far-fetched, will be considered and evaluated. Every contribution is welcomed and valued.
FLA Covid 19 response Steering Group - Guidelines for Access during Covid-19
The FLA Covid 19 Response Steering Group have issued guidelines to assist parents and practitioners in relation to access, in light of the restrictions brought in to tackle Covid-19.
Please click here for a link to the guidelines.
These guidelines reflect the position of the Department of Justice and Equality, issued by Minister Charlie Flanagan yesterday, and endorse the practice direction of the President of the District Court, last week.
This guidance has been prepared by family law practitioners and endorsed by the Family Lawyers Association Family and the Child Law Committee of the Law Society.
Parents and practitioners will appreciate the guidelines are intended to constitute best practice guidelines rather than specific client advice.
The FLA would like to share the following guide for online mediation.
Please click here for further information.
FLA COVID-19 Response Steering Group - Submissions on Current & Future Functioning of Family law Courts.
A subcommittee of the FLA has endeavoured to develop a detailed understanding of the current functioning of the Courts across Ireland – particularly in so far as it relates to the practice of Family Law and related areas. The results of that survey, though still incomplete, are published today and will be widely circulated. Aside from the data which we have collated, the survey reveals the tremendous commitment, selflessness and professionalism of everyone involved in the administration of Justice across the country and particularly in the field of Family Law. The survey will be updated and re-published as new data and information emerges.
Following on from that work, the subcommittee set upon the task of developing realistic ideas and practices for the reinstatement of the safe and responsible practice of Family Law for the medium future – we suggest from April 2020 to September 2020.
The suggestions set out in these submissions are premised on full compliance by all parties with the Public Health Guidelines issued by the HSE.
The FLA would invite all interested parties to review the below submissions and the FLA Covid-19 Response Steering Group welcomes any feedback or suggestions.
FLA - COVID 19 Response Steering Group - Current Functioning of all Courts
FLA - COVID 19 Response Steering Group - Suggestions for Future Functioning of High Court
FLA - COVID 19 Response Steering Group - Suggestions for Future Functioning of Circuit Family Court
FLA - COVID 19 Response Steering Group - Letter to Membership
FLA issues Guidance for members & practitioners - COVID-19
After a period of consultation a sub-committee of the Family Lawyers Association has drafted a short set of protocols which it is hoped will aid mutual professional cooperation, guarantee continuity of work, protect and further the interests of our clients and above all minimise unnecessary exposure to illness.
These protocols are not intended to be prescriptive but are offered to satisfy a demand among the membership for clarity as to how we can proceed in the foreseeable future.
It behoves us all to try and be as collegiate as possible consistent with the interests of our clients and to co-operate with each other in these extraordinary times as much as possible with a view to finding agreements where possible.
The successful implementation of the protocols will require a degree of flexibility from all stakeholders and we urge all members to use their good common sense and discretion in this regard.
We are extremely gratified by the spirit of mutual cooperation shown by the membership in the past week or so.
Please click here for a link to the guidance.
The Family Lawyers' Association of Ireland is delighted to inform its members of the conclusion of a new agreement with Stare Decisis.
From January 2020 (and, indeed, backdated to 2018) the members' section of the FLA website will republish a substantial number of reports prepared by Decisis on family law and related issues.
Furthermore, Decisis have agreed to provide a reduced price for barrister members of the FLA of €195 plus VAT per year (reduced from €250 plus VAT per year, which is the normal price for individual subscriptions). Reductions at a similar rate will also be given to solicitor members of the Association who take out new subscriptions, on application to Decisis.
The FLA strongly encourages its members to avail of this offer.
Please click here for more details.
The Family Lawyers Assoication supports the recent launch of the Courting Disaster Campaign in Dublin.
The Assoication is one of eleven organisations that supports the campaign which calls on the government to immediately allocate the funding required to develop a dedicated Family Law Court at Hammond Lane in Smithfield in Dublin.
Please click the below links for press articles about the launch of the campaign as well as information on the campaign itself.
Members are also encouraged to look out for the #courtingdisaster hash tag.
The Family Lawyers Assoication of Ireland would like to draw its members attention to SI 585 of 2019 - The Family Law Act 2019 (Commenement) Order 2019 which brings Parts 1 and 2 of the Family Law Act 2019 into operation as of the 1st December 2019.
Please click here for a link to the Statutory Instrument.
The Family Lawyers Association is delighted to announce the launch of its Twitter page.
We invite all our members to follow us by our twitter handle @lawyers_Ireland and to keep up to date with all the latest Association news and events.
You can also find a link here to our twitter page.
Following the AGM of the Family Lawyers Association of Ireland held on the 16th November 2019 at the RDS, a new executive committee was appointed.
