Practitioners will benefit from a new Commons briefing paper on child maintenance, arrears and enforcement which has just been published. It sets out information on what action the Child Maintenance Service can take and its powers to collect unpaid maintenance. If payments are not made in full or on time under a statutory child maintenance …
Continue reading “Child maintenance – research on collecting unpaid maintenance”
New mandatory and discretionary disregards to financial eligibility tests for civil legal aid have been introduced under the Civil and Criminal Legal Aid (Financial Resources and Contribution Orders) (Amendment) Regulations 2024. From 20 November 2024, applications for legal aid made from that date are affected and some people already receiving legal aid (and paying legal …
Continue reading “Legal aid – means testing”
The family court transparency pilots now encompass public and private law cases in the magistrates’ court across all 19 pilot areas. From 4 November 2024, accredited media may now report on such proceedings, subject to strict conditions on anonymity. Magistrates will make transparency orders limiting what can be reported. Practitioners should also note that the …
Continue reading “Transparency scheme pilots – magistrates court”
In a fact-finding hearing in care proceedings involving three children, the trial judge correctly placed M within the pool of perpetrators of injuries that had been inflicted on the youngest child. She had been unable to decide on balance whether M or her partner had inflicted the injuries. Both of them were found to have …
Continue reading “Children – pool of perpetrators; lies”
In these private children proceedings, the court made a s8 order in an exceptional case: the child (C) was 17 years old. He had cerebral palsy and experienced associated physical and communication limitations. M was his main carer but was ‘wholly negative’ about F. At times, C expressed a clear wish to see F but …
Continue reading “Children – older child’s wishes and feelings”
An expert report obtained after a final hearing was not reliable or procedurally acceptable and was not permitted as fresh evidence on appeal. Care and placement orders were made in respect of a baby girl (T) whose parents had histories of alcohol problems. F also had criminal convictions. Two older children were living with grandparents …
Continue reading “Care proceedings – fresh evidence”
Where a child is removed from a jurisdiction by one parent with the other’s consent, proceedings under the Hague Convention will likely fail. The question in this case was whether F had in fact consented to M removing the children to the UK from the US. The parties had five children. The youngest born was …
Continue reading “Child abduction – Hague Convention; consent”
Fundamental defects in a suspended committal order prevented the court from activating it. The order for committal suspended for 18 months had been made against F following breaches of various return orders requiring him to procure the return of a child from Algeria to England. M applied for the order to be activated. The activation …
Continue reading “Committal proceedings – sentencing; procedural defects”
In the notable case of Stack v Dowden [2007]), Baroness Hale said an express declaration of trust is conclusive unless varied by subsequent agreement or affected by proprietary estoppel. However, she did not expressly state that such subsequent agreement must comply with formal legal requirements. So, must a ‘subsequent agreement’ comply with the requirements of …
Continue reading “Financial remedies – matrimonial property”
W sought to rely on H’s conduct during the marriage to ‘seek validation and justification of her own sense of ill-treatment’ – but that was not the court’s function. So said the family court judge in a case where W specifically raised conduct in the course of FR proceedings. The court can take serious conduct …
Continue reading “Financial remedies – abusive marriage”