In an unusual case a judge accused social workers of being “biased” against grandparents who sought to contest the proposed adoption of their two year old grandson. His Honour Judge Jack gave his judgment on 14th June 2014 in the Hull Family Court; this was published on 25th November 2014. Read more…
Section 11 of the Children and Families Act 2014 will come into force today, the 22nd October. This section introduces the presumption of parental involvement. It amends the Children Act 1989 by requiring a Court to now presume, unless the contrary is shown, that ‘involvement’ of the parent in the Read more…
The animal charity Blue Cross has introduced the world’s first ‘Pet Nuptial Agreement’ to deal with how pets are treated on divorce and separation. The law views pets as chattels i.e. possessions, rather than considering their welfare as the primary consideration. There is limited case law on the treatment of Read more…
The case of the seriously ill 5 year old boy Aysha King has been all over the news this week. From a family law perspective the case is interesting as, on 1st September 2014, Aysha was made a ward of court on an application to the High Court by Portsmouth Read more…
The issue of surrogacy has been in the news recently due to allegations that an Australian couple rejected a baby boy born in Thailand under a commercial surrogacy arrangement. The baby’s twin sister was accepted but the boy was not as he has Down’s syndrome. The law governing surrogacy in Read more…
Statistics have recently been released which suggest in excess of 19,000 more parents appeared in civil Courts without expert legal representation in cases relating to their children in the 12 months that followed the Legal Aid cuts in April 2013. Prior to April 2013 those who could not afford to Read more…
As many will know, legal aid for many civil cases which include disputes about the living arrangements for children has been severely curtailed in the last 12 months. The government has recently proposed that the availability of legal aid should be reduced further by bringing in a residency test such Read more…
A Judge in Wales has been highly critical of a local authority which failed to return a nine year old boy to his mother’s care after she withdrew her consent to him being in foster care. The boy had been accommodated while his mother had treatment in a psychiatric unit. Read more…
This was one of the headlines in the news on Monday 23rd June on the BBC and in numerous broadsheet newspapers. A report carried out by two universities and funded by the Nuffield Foundation found that around one in three court applications by Local Authorities to take children into care Read more…
Since the cuts to legal aid for family cases in April 2013, there has been a rise in the number of companies offering loans to fund legal costs. These ‘litigation loans’ are only available for financial cases in which the client is likely to receive a settlement with which they Read more…