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

 

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

 

Lying in court and penalties for late filing of evidence

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This morning, I was reading the case HU v SU [2015] EWFC 535 published earlier this month. The case has a number of features which are depressingly common:

  • Allegations being omitted from earlier statements and the schedule of findings sought, and later fresh allegations embellished and exaggerated in oral evidence;
  • Children being involved in parental disputes and influenced by one or other of the parents impacting upon their relationship with the other parent;
  • Late filing of evidence.

Continue reading Lying in court and penalties for late filing of evidence

 

New case law – You Can’t Hug Skype

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Case Reference: Re R (A Child: Relocation) [2015] EWHC 456 (Fam)

Reposted as we’d originally given a reference of C and B (A Child: Relocation) [2015] EWHC 456 (Fam) and it’s commonly being referred to now as Re R. The neutral citation remains unchanged. Worth reminding yourself of the case, as it still isn’t commonly known, but is very pertinent to leave to remove cases and addressing arguments that Skype contact is a sufficient substitute to face-to-face care.

The mother sought leave to remove to enable her to relocate the child to Hong Kong to take up employment there. This case made headlines (in the Daily Mail) for the observation that Skype was no panacea to a lack of physical contact. The judge observed: Continue reading New case law – You Can’t Hug Skype