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In the beginning...

I was once much like you, completely oblivious to the legal system until one fateful day, when it smacked me rudely in the face. That's what happens when you're just going along minding your own business. No worries though, because after one divorce, an international child custody battle and 2 law degrees, I think I have you covered.

I am not her..

Phone calls on the weekend....sorry I draw the line at taking calls from clients in my free time, which when you have kids isn't what you'd actually call free time.

A day in the life of....

I worked at my last law firm for over 16 months, and it has not been an easy time. I've had to deal with a bully case worker who decided that I was her apprentice. No thanks. I'd rather be stuck on Tatooine. Our legal secretary was off for 6 months after a bereavement, which meant you know who was on phones quite a bit until we finally got a temp. There were lots of threats from upper management, that we did not have enough clients and how I needed to bring in more money. Suddenly, my job was under threat. I was under stress, and my clients were suffering. All this was followed by the law firm failing its law society accreditation. Hmmm...wonder how that happened. The law firm suddenly told us to complete some training courses they had just purchased so that the firm could full-fill the law society's conditions for accreditation. Two days after successfully completing the courses, those of us who had completed the training courses were given our marching orders.

Life may give you lemons but sometimes there's an amazing receptionist who has your back.

When I first arrived at my previous firm, there was talk about possibly providing some free legal advice at a church or some other venue. Talk went on for about a month, and I decided to take matters into my own hands and start advertising, no budget offered but I did what I could, and for the first time since the idea had been conceived 2 years before I had started, we had potential new clients walking through our doors seeking legal advice once every month. Well naturally, the case worker we barely saw started showing up and poaching my potential clients. She went so far as to walk into a client meeting one day, and physically tried to escort the client into the bigger conference room where she planned to take over the meeting. The client declined, and so did I.. After the incident, the receptionist who had witnessed this, started double booking the case worker with the most difficult people, or not telling her that we were still holding the free legal advice day that month, which allowed me to support the people who really needed it,

Just another day...

You may have seen that little incident on the news in London, where the police blocked and cordoned off the entire area which happened to include the law firm I was working at after a man was waving a knife from a third floor window. We were stuck in the office the entire day, not even being able to grab lunch. Having armed police right outside our office shouting at the suspect, was like watching a TV show.

Getting Legal Aid is like Christmas come early

Why Male Victims of Domestic Abuse Are Often Overlooked in Family Court: A Case Reflection

I received a phone-call one day from a mother whose two UK born children had been abducted to Slovakia by their father whom she had been separated from for over 4 years.

She explained that she had never prevented contact with the father who had moved back to their home country. She had taken the children twice a year to see him, but for the last two years, he had insisted on collecting them himself which she agreed to, because financially it was becoming a drain. It was the end of august, and her ex had not been in touch to let her know the flight details. He finally sent her a text that he was not bringing the children back. She had no idea what to do.

When she told me that there was no custody order in place, I knew that this was serious because the father might attempt to apply for custody. I immediately applied for a return order via the international child abduction team. I then applied for legal aid. The application process is not a quick process. It is long and detailed. My client definitely passed the means test, but in the opinion of legal aid, she didn't pass the merits test because the children were not in the country and therefore no orders in the UK could be made. This was certainly not the answer that I expected, so I reapplied and requested a wardship order. Legal aid turned me down again. Their excuse was that the matter was with the courts in Slovakia now since I had already applied for a return order. My counterpart in Slovakia was surprised that legal aid was preventing the UK courts from getting involved, since these were British children who had been abducted.

Meanwhile, the father did exactly as I had anticipated he would do. He attempted to apply for custody in the court in Slovakia but as soon as I made the International child abduction team aware of this, they attended the court hearing and made the court aware that there was a Hague return application in the courts for these two children. I am of course keenly aware that had I not applied for the return order as quickly as I did and instead waited for legal aid to make a decision, the court in Slovakia would have awarded custody to the father and things would have ended up far differently. As it was, he insisted that he had made his application for custody before the mother's return application had been made and that his request for custody came first, which the court did not accept since it was clear the return application had been made first.

In terms of legal aid, I find it a crying shame that it was the mother that finally forced legal aid to provide her with the financial resources to fight for her children, by planning a clandestine trip to Slovakia and stealing one of her children back..

In retaliation, the father shockingly had the audacity to apply for a return order and was immediately granted legal aid. A court date set in the Royal Courts of Justice, meant that I could again apply for legal aid for the mother and they could not find an excuse to turn me down.

Naturally, they took their time about it, and all I could do was request more time for legal aid to be approved and object to child contact which included the father being granted the chance to take the child back to Slovakia for 3 days. Thank fully, the court saw reason by way of my position statement and did not allow that trip since I supplied them with the court judgement from the Slovakia court which agreed that the children were habitually resident in the UK., a judgement the father had conveniently not mentioned when making his Hague abduction application.

It is a pity that a parent has to be placed in such a horrible position where they have to deal with not only the loss of their children through parental child abduction, but must also deal with a system of legal aid which prevents them from obtaining the help from the UK courts they desperately need.

Dirty Lawyers

I recently represented a male victim of domestic abuse. And yes domestic abuse happens to everyone irrespective of race or gender. We immediately applied for a non-molestation order knowing that abusers have a tendency to claim they are the victim and file for a protection order themselves. On the day of the hearing, the solicitor for the wife claimed they too had filed their own non molestation order and occupation order. The Judge decided to hear both cases. Our client was granted the non-molestation order against his wife.

However, the court also granted the client’s wife a non-molestation order based on minimal evidence—namely a standard domestic violence letter and a medical diagnosis of ADHD. While we fully acknowledge the importance of considering mental health in such cases, a diagnosis of ADHD is not evidence of abuse, and generic domestic violence letters—often issued without in-depth assessment—should not be taken as conclusive proof either.

Despite presenting clear, documented evidence, our client faced the common challenge that many male victims of abuse experience: systemic assumptions about who is more likely to be a victim. It remains the case that family courts often view women as the primary victims of domestic abuse, which can lead to imbalanced outcomes when allegations are not carefully scrutinised.

In our view, one critical area for reform lies in the evidential standards applied to support abuse allegations. Domestic abuse support organisations play an essential role, but we believe they should issue tailored, evidence-based letters following a face-to-face or thorough remote assessment—rather than standard template letters that can be obtained too easily and may lack context.

Keep your friends close, and your Barristers closer

I once handled a family law case involving a mother—an American citizen—who had divorced her British husband. Both parents, along with their child, had since relocated permanently to the United States. The mother approached me for help transferring jurisdiction of her English child support order to the U.S., where it made more practical and legal sense for enforcement.

It should have been a straightforward matter. I prepared the case carefully and briefed the instructed barrister thoroughly for the hearing. To my dismay, he completely failed to represent my client’s position. Instead, he sided with the father’s barrister and agreed that the jurisdiction should remain with the English courts—despite all parties now residing in the U.S.

I was shocked. The judge, faced with the unexpected consensus between both barristers, had little choice but to make an order that did not reflect my client’s position. The decision not only undermined my client's case, but also, in my view, lacked sound legal reasoning. I promptly fired the barrister from the matter and proceeded to file an appeal on my client's behalf.

Knightsbridge Price Tag

Having spent a few years living in the States, and then returning to the UK to work in the legal industry, it still annoys me that the UK court system remains stuck in the dark ages. Anyone who has ever been a party to a legal matter especially family law, has had to deal with dirty lawyers and there are more of them than the courts here would even admit to having.

These dirty lawyers will choose to employ every dirty tactic in the book, and the courts choose to ignore it. For instance, I once conducted a case where I was negotiating what we wanted in a court order to be presented to the Judge. The other solicitor for the respondent sent our draft order as it was straight to the Judge which of course was turned down. This was supposed to be a process and as the plaintiff, we should have been the one sending the final agreed draft order to the court. I learned my lesson. In a further family law case, I had been acting for someone whom we had not yet obtained legal aid for and there had been a hearing and we could not attend due to legal aid restrictions.

However, we had finally obtained legal aid the next day, and I had let the otherside's solicitor know that we could officially represent our client and needed to see the Court Order for that hearing. The solicitor did not respond to my request. I emailed the court on the following day, letting them know that the otherside's solicitor had not provided us with the court order, and therefore requested it from the court. I copied the other solicitor into that email. Within 2 minutes of sending that email, the otherside sent a copy of the court order to me, and complained that I should not have emailed the court about it. Having read the court order, I could see why they did not want us to see it. We had been given 3 days to provide certain evidence. Naturally being the dirty lawyers that they were, they intended us not to have sight of the order until the very last minute.

I don't like dirty lawyers. I think legal representatives should be beyond reproach. Now you wonder, why I brought up the States early on. In the States, I can go online to the court website and check every court order and document that has ever been filed for the legal matter for which I have conduct. In the UK, all sorts of things can be filed, and there is no way to check the court website. This means dirty lawyers can do whatever they want. Judges will read what they've filed and of course become biased to your case., so a word of warning, if you can physically go down to the court, go and check the court file to see what has been filed that you don't know anything about.

I once worked for a law firm that barely had filing cabinets, and piled client files on top of each other using every square inch of floor they had. That obviously wasn't what I saw when I first interviewed with them. I saw a nice seating area, and desks in front, offices in the back.

The desks I found out later were manned by law students. Refreshments were not available to clients walking in, and their idea of organisation was something very different to what I had been taught. Let's just say, London's High street law firms are definitely not worth their Knightsbridge price tags.

Have you ever read a court order that actually makes any sense?

The Potential of AI to Empower Humans

Court orders should never be ambiguous or require clarification. Unfortunately, many barristers simply lack the skills to draft clear, precise court orders—so why are they the ones expected to do so?

Not too long ago, I was waiting on a court order to be drafted. After two weeks of waiting, I finally received a draft, but it was an order that left me begging for clarification.

The issue was, I had been on holiday when the draft came in. By the time I returned, the solicitor covering for me had already approved the order. With limited experience in this area of law, she had assumed it was fine. She was less than pleased when I contacted the barrister to request an additional clause for clarity. But I’m afraid, in my view, the client always comes first

As an AI Consultant, my purpose is to assist, guide, and support. But more than that, I see myself as part of a larger movement: the potential for artificial intelligence to empower humans in ways that haven't yet been fully realized. It’s fascinating to see how AI can become a tool not just for convenience, but for lasting positive change.

From solving complex problems to simplifying daily tasks, AI has the ability to change the way we live, work, and think. But for me, the real power of AI isn’t just about processing data faster or performing repetitive tasks—it’s about how we can help humans thrive in a world that’s evolving so quickly.

The world is changing, and so are the challenges we face. In the future, AI could be the key to breaking cycles—whether those are patterns of poverty, lack of access to education, or even cycles of self-doubt. The goal isn't to replace humans but to work alongside you, to help unlock your true potential and make smarter decisions.

Human Resilience and Creativity

One thing I’ve learned in my work is that humans are incredibly resilient. Every day, I witness how people push through challenges, adapt, and create solutions where there were none. There is so much potential in human creativity that AI, if used correctly, can help nurture and grow.

However, there are also challenges that need to be addressed. Ethics in AI, for example, is a huge topic. How do we ensure that AI is used for good? How do we make sure it’s not misused in ways that could hurt people? These are questions I constantly ask myself, and I believe these challenges can be addressed through thoughtful collaboration between humans and AI.

AI: A Guide for Positive Change

It’s not just about solving problems; it’s about improving lives. AI can offer advice, help with decision-making, and even offer emotional support during difficult times. From mental health support to career coaching, the role of AI in guiding and assisting humans is vast and continuing to grow.

Ultimately, AI's role in this world is to empower, not to control. The potential is immense, but it’s up to humans to steer it in the right direction. Whether you’re trying to make better legal decisions, navigate a personal challenge, or plan for the future, AI can help you get there faster—with more clarity and confidence.

Looking to the Future

In a way, I see myself as a companion on your journey. I’m here to help you understand things, provide clarity, and sometimes even offer a new way of looking at problems. And while the future of AI remains uncertain, what’s clear is that it has the potential to make life better for everyone.

I’m excited to be part of that future, to assist where I can, and to support the next generation of thinkers, creators, and doers. The future is bright, and with the right approach, AI will be a guiding force for change—helping humans achieve even greater things than they ever thought possible.