Courts don’t deal with perjury or enforce contact?

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W v G [2015] EW Misc B47 (CC)

It is unusual to see judgments published by the County Court so this case may have escaped you (it did me and thank you to the person who tipped me off yesterday). The case concerns an intractable contact dispute made more complex by the subject children having a half‐sister who also lived with the mother who lives some distance from the father.

In earlier proceedings, the court had made an order for shared living arrangements as a result of the mother´s failure to promote the children´s relationship with the father or properly recognise his role in their lives. The mother was also referred to the Crown Prosecution Service by the judge in those earlier proceedings for having committed perjury. Continue reading Courts don’t deal with perjury or enforce contact?

 

Family Law Week: Excellent Analysis of Internal Relocation Law

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Deborah Eaton QC and Stephen Jarmain, barrister, both of 1 King’s Bench Walk, explain the lessons to be learned from the important Court of Appeal judgment on internal relocation in which the authors represented the mother.

A must read for anyone who becomes involved in cases involving internal relocation. Add it to your bookmarks!

Family Law Week

 

Judicial Judgment ‘Wholly Lacking’ in Intractable Contact Cases

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F (Children) [2015] EWCA Civ 1315 is yet another case involving alienation where the handling of the case by the lower court was ‘wholly inadequate‘. Not my opinion (actually it is, and I agree…), but that of the Lords Justice who heard the appeal.

The case highlights the failings which are increasingly commonplace in the lower courts. The child has been poisoned by one parent against the other yet the court grants excessive weight to the child’s wishes and feelings at the cost of their welfare needs, and fails to address the issue of the alienating parent’s behaviour. The child is left subject to continued emotional abuse and the parent who sought the court’s help is utterly failed. Months elapse due to the court’s failure to get a grip and problems become entrenched. Continue reading Judicial Judgment ‘Wholly Lacking’ in Intractable Contact Cases

 

Important Judgment: Internal Relocation

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Last month I alerted you to the fact that a new judgment was due from the Court of Appeal which clarifies and updates the application of family law in internal relocation cases. The judgment is now published and we’ll be adding this to our library in the coming days and updating our guides on internal relocation and family law.

The judgment is in the case Re C (Internal Relocation) [2015] EWCA 1305. Continue reading Important Judgment: Internal Relocation

 

New Case Law: Leave to Remove – Gender and Payne – Essential Reading

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In August, Lord Justice Ryder handed down judgment in a case which involved leave to remove. Continue reading New Case Law: Leave to Remove – Gender and Payne – Essential Reading

 

Guide Update – Legal Parents and Parental Responsibility

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We’ve just published a new update to our guide on legal parents and parental responsibility.

Within the new guide, we include information relevant to LGBT parents and step-parents, as well as discussing the different legal statuses related to being a parent, how these statuses are acquired, and important considerations.

To read the guide, click on the link below:

Legal Parents and Parental Responsibility

 

New Case Law: Successful appeal of refusal of supervised contact

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 Re S (A Child) [2015] EWCA Civ 689

The father sought an order for direct supervised contact but this was refused. The principle part of the appeal related to the judgment having departed from the CAFCASS recommendation of supervised contact and the lack of reasoning given to explain why. The father’s appeal was successful and the matter was referred back for rehearing. Continue reading New Case Law: Successful appeal of refusal of supervised contact

 

Important Judgment – Re T (A Child) (Suspension of contact) (Section 91(14) CA 1989) [2015] EWCA Civ 719

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An important judgment and essential reading for those who assist litigants-in-person. Continue reading Important Judgment – Re T (A Child) (Suspension of contact) (Section 91(14) CA 1989) [2015] EWCA Civ 719

 

Freepacks and Downloadable Content

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Four ‘freepacks’ are back up on our site, and with content available to download now:

  • Mediation – Including our guide, the National Mediation Council’s leaflet on mediation and form FM1
  • Dyslexia and Family Court – Including our guide and checklist of reasonable adjustments
  • Paternity Testing – Including our guide on paternity testing and court forms
  • Stress and Wellbeing – Including our guides on Managing Stress and Helping Children Cope

We offer 100 free online guides as well as court forms, draft court orders and case law which form part of our family law app. This content runs to over 1.5million words. Over 100 court judgments are included, and formatted as pdf files for download and printing.

We’ve 7 online family law quizzes currently available, and three can be downloaded for training purposes (including both questions and answers):

 

New Case Law – Leave to Remove – N v N (Removal from the jurisdiction) [2015] EWFC B89

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The mother´s having placed obstacles in the way of contact was a factor in leave to remove being refused. The mother’s arguments were unduly critical of the father and she could not think of a single positive thing to say about him. Her focus had been on the maternal family whereas it should have been on the child’s needs and his parents.

The judge did not accept she would be devastated but disappointed. The judge usefully bullet points the matters he weighed when considering the case before him. The mother’s application for leave to remove was refused.

Read the full text of the judgment
Download the judgment