I recently represented a parent in a care case involving alleged non-accidental injuries (NAI) to a child. The local authority had brought care proceedings based on injuries the child had sustained, which were said to be non-accidental, and therefore inflicted deliberately. Typically, applications for care orders are based upon neglect or abuse. “Abuse’ in this … Continue reading →

Events which lead to the successful re-opening of cases are known as “Barder” events, after the sad case of Barder v Barder (Caluori Intervening) [1987] 2 FLR 480, where a financial award to meet the needs of the wife and children was fundamentally undermined by the death of the wife and children weeks after the … Continue reading →

In these times of social distancing & restrictions on movement, when jury trials have come to a halt, and court hearings of all kinds are being adjourned due to the need to maintain social distance. Almost everyone is waiting to see what will happen when the lockdown ends. A backlog of cases is building up, … Continue reading →

Early childhood deprivation through neglect and adversity is associated with alterations in the brain structure as adults, despite environmental enrichment in intervening years, according to an article published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS) on 7.1.2020. The research, carried out by King’s College London, examined the MRI data … Continue reading →

A Parliamentary inquiry started in February 2019, into the growing trend of local authorities to “farm out” vulnerable youngsters to care & foster homes far from their birth families, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, just as a group of parents planned legal action to ensure their children are housed in residential care homes close to … Continue reading →

Is the family justice system in crisis? Yes says Sir Andrew McFarlane, the new president of the Family Division of the High Court, who took over that role in July 2018. Sir Andrew was speaking at the launch of a Care Crisis review, an independent study by senior lawyers, social workers, charities & academics into … Continue reading →

The 2018 report of the British Association of Social Workers’s (BASW) into adoption law According to an independent enquiry into adoption law in the UK by the British Association of Social Workers’s (BASW), adoption has become a “runaway train,” almost impossible to stop. The two-year enquiry, led by Professors Brid Featherstone and Anna Gupta, gathered … Continue reading →

There is no clear age at which children can give evidence in family court proceedings. Section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989 sets out a check-list of factors the court is required to take into account when making a decision which affects the welfare of a child. The first of these factors is “the ascertainable … Continue reading →