Rectifying the Course of Rectification

In Daventry District Council v Daventry & District Housing Ltd [2011] EWCA Civ 1153, the majority of the Court of Appeal held that a contract should be rectified because of a common mistake. This note discusses that decision and recent developments in the law of rectification. It is argued that the approach of the majority in Daventry is unsatisfactory, and that an emphasis upon ascertaining whether the parties have objectively made a common mistake may be inappropriate: rectification should only be granted in order to reflect the parties’ subjective intentions. Such an approach might help to distinguish common mistake rectification from unilateral mistake rectification.     

The Ubiquitous Family Environment: Examining Emotional Insecurity in the Family and Adjustment in School

The present study examines adolescents' emotional insecurity and problem behaviors at school. Adolescents (n = 280; 136 boys, 144 girls, Median age = 13) and their parents reported on adolescents' emotional security and adjustment problems. Adolescents' teachers (n = 240) also reported on adolescents' school adjustment. Results support that emotional insecurity is related to adjustment problems in the home and at school. Emotional insecurity in the family system was a better predictor of adolescents' adjustment problems than emotional insecurity in the interparental relationship. Findings have implications for teachers, parents, school administrators and policy‐makers, as adolescents' problem behaviors at school can be explained by their emotional insecurity.     

Changes to the training of English and Welsh lawyers: implications for the future of university law schools

The focus of this article is upon the plans by the Bar Standards Board and, in particular, the Solicitors Regulation Authority to remodel the education and training processes for barristers and solicitors. Introducing the most radical changes to legal education in recent decades, the proposals present Anglo-Welsh law schools with dilemmas in terms of their future educational models, student recruitment and issues of equal opportunities and accessibility. However, opportunities are also present, should some law schools wish to utilise the momentum for change to move away from constraints necessitated by following an, in part, professionally determined syllabus. Research Excellence Framework, professorial expertise and doctoral degree data are used to demonstrate that some law schools have moved away from focusing on areas most relevant to professional practice, but have retained a dependence on qualifying law degree status to recruit students in comparatively large numbers.     

A profile of children with disabilities receiving SSI: highlights from the National Survey of SSI Children and Families

This article provides a nationally representative profile of noninstitutionalized children 0 to 17 years of age who were receiving support from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program because of a disability. To assess the role of the SSI program in providing assistance to low-income children with disabilities and their families, it is important to obtain detailed information on demographic characteristics, income and assets, health and disabilities, and health care utilization. Yet administrative records of the Social Security Administration do not contain many of the relevant data items, and the records provide only an incomplete picture of the family relationships affecting the lives of children with disabilities. The National Survey of SSI Children and Families fills this gap. This summary article is based on survey interviews conducted between July 2001 and June 2002 and provides some highlights characterizing children with disabilities who were receiving SSI and their families. Most children receiving SSI (hereafter referred to as "SSI children") lived in a family headed by a single mother, and less than one in three lived with both parents. A very high proportion, about half, were living in a household with at least one other individual reported to have had a disability. About 70 percent of children received some kind of special education. SSI support was the most important source of family income, with earnings a close second. On average, SSI payments accounted for nearly half of the income for the children's families, and earnings accounted for almost 40 percent. When all sources of family income were considered, slightly more than half (54 percent) of SSI children lived in families above the poverty threshold, a notable fact given that the federal SSI program guarantees only a subpoverty level of income. However, beyond these averages there was substantial variation, with some children living in families with income well below the poverty threshold and others having income well over 200 percent of the poverty threshold. About one-third of SSI children lived in families owning a home, two-thirds lived with parents or guardians with at least one car, and about 40 percent lived with parents or guardians with zero liquid assets. Less than 4 percent lived with adults who owned stocks, mutual funds, notes, certificates of deposit, or savings bonds. The Social Security Administration's administrative records contain only a limited amount of information about disability diagnoses. The National Survey of SSI Children and Families supplements those records with data from an array of questions on functional limitations, self-reported health, and the perceived severity of disabilities. The data suggest that a great degree of variation in severity exists within the childhood caseload, as reflected in reports of the presence or absence of six functional limitations, perceived overall health status, and perceived impact of disability on the child's ability to do things. Overall, 36 percent of the children were reported to have had disabilities that affected their abilities to do things "a great deal," and for 21 percent their difficulties had very little or no impact. Physical disabilities were most common among children aged 0 to 5, and mental disabilities dominated the picture for the other two age groups: 6 to 12 and 13 to 17. Virtually all SSI children are covered by some form of health insurance, with Medicaid being by far the most common source of health insurance coverage. Just as in the case of the severity of disabilities, substantial variation was reported in health care utilization among SSI children. Almost 30 percent of children had two or fewer doctor visits during the 12 months preceding the interview, and close to 50 percent had five or more doctor visits. About four-fifths of the children had no reported hospitalizations or surgeries during the previous year. More than 40 percent of the children visited an emergency room during the previous year, most of them more than once. Importantly, no out-of-pocket costs associated with medical care were reported for more than two-thirds of the children, and only about 3 percent had annual expenses exceeding $1,000 for physical and mental health care. This finding suggests that SSI payments are not used to cover medical expenses for the overwhelming majority of children. The use of supportive therapies varied widely among SSI children: more than half reported having used physical, occupational, or speech therapy; only 8 percent used respite care for the parents or other family members. An analysis of the perception of the survey respondents shows that more than one-third of children had unmet needs for mental health counseling services, and about three-quarters of families had unmet needs for respite care. In several service categories, the proportion perceived to have had unmet service needs was around 10 percent or less. In the dominant service category of physical, occupational, and speech therapy, only 11 percent perceived to have had unmet service needs.