Glossary

Conditional Fee Agreement – also known as a “no win, no fee” agreement: a form of litigation funding whereby the fees charged by the claimant’s lawyers are only payable if the action succeeds. In some circumstances, these may be recoverable as costs from the losing party. Most solicitors entering into a CFA will also charge… Continue reading

Court order that sets out who should have responsibility for care of a child, who they should live with and how often they will see or have contact with each parent (see section 8 of the Children Act 1989, as amended by the Children and Families Act 2014). Such an order is generally made where… Continue reading

Every solicitor or solicitor’s firm (but not barristers) has two accounts: a client account and an office account. The office account is the firm’s own money to spend as it wants: eg payment of wages and other expenses (rent, electricity etc) and to the solicitors themselves. The client account represents a lot of relatively much… Continue reading

Collusion, in the context of litigation (particularly divorce litigation) is “an improper act done, or an improper refraining from doing an act, [with another party] for a dishonest purpose.” See Scott v Scott [1913] P 52.  Such a purpose may include the obtaining of a divorce based on a false presentation of the facts, eg to… Continue reading

An official government paper presented to Parliament, “by command of His/Her Majesty”, and given an official reference number. The reference number follows a prefix (Cd, Cmnd, Cm etc) which has changed over the years since it was introduced in 1870. 1 to 4222 (1833 – 18690) C 1 to 9550 (1870 – 1899) Cd 1… Continue reading

A qualified lawyer who can administer an oath, take an affidavit or attest a signature where this is required by the court or for a specific type of document. Administering oaths is a reserved legal activity, by virtue of Part 3 of the Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA), which means that only a qualified practising… Continue reading

The mistaken belief that cohabiting couples enjoy legal rights similar to those who are formally married or in a civil partnership. They don’t. There is no such thing as a “common law” wife or husband or marriage, no matter how long a couple may “live together as man and wife” or however one wants to… Continue reading

The  Commonwealth Legal Information Institute or CommonLII is a free legal research database covering case law, legislation and other materials from all Commonwealth countries. It includes content from a number of smaller jurisdictions that do not have their own separate LIIs and are not covered by WorldLII.  CommonLII also holds a database of PDFs from the… Continue reading

A conditional fee (sometimes called a contingent fee) arrangement is a fee for legal services in pursuing a claim which is only payable if and when the claim is successful and costs recovered. It is one of a number of ways in which an impecunious claimant, who cannot otherwise afford to pursue their case, can… Continue reading

Where there is a dispute over whether a case should be litigated in one jurisdiction or another, there is said to be a conflict of laws.… Continue reading