In Re B (A Child) (Unnecessary Private Law Applications) [2020] EWFC B44 HHJ Wildblood QC, in a case with a title that gets straight to the point, has sent a message directed at family lawyers. Its stated targets are ‘parties and lawyers’. However, given that litigants generally don’t read law reports, it’s a safe assumption … Continue reading →

As family practitioners we all frequently deal with cases where parental alienation and/or implacable hostility is alleged. The recent case of Re H (Parental Alienation) [2019] EWHC 2723 (Fam) is one of the recent cases where the Courts are prepared to change residence. This case is also interesting because the subject child was 12, which … Continue reading →

This is a quick refresher on S.91(14) Orders as a consequence of the most recent case concerning this subject: Re N (children) [2019] EWCA Civ 903. Although not changing the previous position, and in fact endorsing what we previously understood about the not insignificant amount of law in respect of such orders. This was an … Continue reading →

This is a very recent Court of Appeal Judgment in which there was a successful appeal of a fact-finding judgment in private law proceedings: A (Children) Re [2019] EWCA Civ 74 This particular case involves transnational marriage abandonment, an issue that the court appears to be grappling with more and more frequently. This a case, … Continue reading →

On Thursday 14th September 2017 the President, Sir James Munby released a Circular about the Cobb Review of PD 12J (commissioned by the President and published in January 2017). Mr. Justice Cobb had also published a draft amended PD 12J with his review, which I addressed in an earlier article for Family Law Week.  The … Continue reading →

Family analysis: In C v G, a mother successfully sought the return of her two children from Madagascar where they were living with their father after being wrongfully removed from the UK. Marie Crawford, barrister at Becket Chambers, explains why the judgment is helpful in restating the law in this area of family practice. Original … Continue reading →

Marie Crawford considers the orders a court might make at a first hearing dispute resolution appointment. I decided to look in detail at the First Hearing and Dispute Resolution Appointment as a result of a recent experience in a Tier 1 family court, where there appeared to be some confusion as to what orders the … Continue reading →

The presumption of contact can now (explicitly) be displaced As a result of the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Domestic Violence (APPG) after the publication in January 2016 of the influential Women’s Aid report entitled ‘Nineteen Child Homicides: What must change so children are put first in child contact arrangements and the … Continue reading →

Initiated by the President (Munby, not Trump!), the Sussex Settlement Conferences pilot begins in January 2017, beginning in Brighton but with the aim of extending across Sussex. This new process can be applied to any Family Law case – public or private – to aid resolution. It seems that the potential for the process to … Continue reading →

I was reminded recently in a case that it is possible to obtain financial support under Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 in certain circumstances. The facts in my case were that the Parents were divorced and there had been no financial orders made. The Father had the care of the children on an … Continue reading →

Having done my first enforcement application this week, I thought I would share this on the blog. Thankfully, these are fairly rare applications, ones that go beyond the first appointment at court are at any rate This is usually enough to bring the ‘offending’ party back into line. I represented a Father who had obtained … Continue reading →

I am very gratified in seeing the recent case of M v F (Covert Recording of Children) (2016) EWFC Peter Jackson J, were he gives yet another insightful and sensible judgment, this time in relation to the recording of children. I, like many other family practitioners I am sure, have had to deal with this … Continue reading →

In light of recent headlines last week about the abduction of a 3 year old child by his Mother Rebecca Minnock, child abduction is very much in the news. In this article Marie Crawford looks at abduction by removal to a Hague Convention country and the most sweeping changes to this area of law made … Continue reading →