Three legal systems, not one with regional settings
The United Kingdom has three family law systems. Numo Law holds a separate knowledge pack for each, resolves the right one from the connecting factors at intake, and blocks the other two from leaking into a draft.
Where the three actually differ
Not an exhaustive comparison. These are the points at which software built only for England and Wales produces a document that is wrong on its face.
| England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Procedure | Family Procedure Rules 2010 | Ordinary cause and simplified procedure | Orders in Council and the NI rules |
| First instance court | The Family Court | The Sheriff Court | The Family Care Centre and County Court |
| Parties | Applicant and respondent | Pursuer and defender | Applicant and respondent |
| Children orders | Section 8 orders, Children Act 1989 | Section 11 orders, Children (Scotland) Act 1995 | Articles under the Children (NI) Order 1995 |
| Financial disclosure | Form E | No Form E. Disclosure by agreement or order | The NI equivalent forms |
| Valuation date | Date of trial | Date of separation | Date of trial |
| Settlement instrument | Consent order | Minute of agreement, registrable for execution | Consent order |
| Regulator | SRA, BSB, CILEx Regulation | Law Society of Scotland, Faculty of Advocates | Law Society of Northern Ireland, Bar of NI |
The send is blocked, not flagged
A warning that a fee earner can click past is not a control. Vocabulary from the wrong jurisdiction stops the document leaving.
- SupportedResolved at intake
- Jurisdiction comes from the connecting factors, not from a dropdown someone picks at speed. Where the factors compete, or an international element is present, the router refuses to resolve and asks.
- SupportedLocked to the matter
- Once resolved, the correct law, forms, vocabulary, court structure and regulator are bound to the matter and drive everything downstream.
- SupportedScanned on the way out
- Every outgoing draft is checked against the forbidden-term list for that jurisdiction, with the correct substitution offered.
- Blocked by the productChanged silently later
- Jurisdiction cannot be switched without a recorded decision, because the documents already produced under the old one have to be reviewed.
Scotland
“… the applicant seeks a section 8 order and invites the Family Court to list the matter …”
- applicantpursuer
- Family CourtSheriff Court
- section 8 ordersection 11 order
Bring us the jurisdiction your current system gets wrong
Scottish and Northern Irish practitioners: this is the part worth testing hardest in a demonstration.