A MESSAGE FROM H H JUDGE HAIGH, LEAD JUDGE MANCHESTER FINANCIAL REMEDY COURT
At least for the foreseeable future, and whilst the government guidelines are in place, could I encourage all practitioners with first appointments in the financial remedies court after 1 April to give active consideration to the application in their case of the fourth schedule to the good practice guide which allows these hearings to be resolved by approval of the consent order submitted 14 days prior to the hearing.
I have given a strong indication to all financial remedy judges that they are entitled to waive the timescales where appropriate. I appreciate this will involve a work commitment in terms of discussions and negotiations. It is important however that we do everything we can to reduce the number of court hearings and associated infection risk
Could I also encourage practitioners in these discussions to consider, if appropriate, private FDRs. I appreciate this involves an additional layer of cost. It will however again reduce the number of times people have to come to court and reduce overall infection risk.
Lastly many practitioners have good ideas which we might implement at this time please do feel free to contact me.
My clerk’s email address is [email protected]