Case Summaries

Order made for payment both of historic and prospective costs through a Legal Service Payment Order in Schedule 1 and Section 8 Children Act 1989 proceedings.

Judgment on appeal in financial remedy proceedings against the wording of a lump sum order and the quantum of that order.

Court dismisses a defendant’s appeal against a declaration that she was the 20% beneficial owner of a property in her former partner’s sole name pursuant to a settlement agreement reached between the parties in a car park during the course of litigation in 2007 and that she was estopped from asserting the contrary.

Judgment considering whether the court should exercise its power under Article 11(7) and (8) of Brussels IIa to return a child to England, in circumstances where a Polish Court had rejected the father’s application for the child’s summary return under the Hague Convention because it found that there was a grave risk that it would expose him to psychological harm, but a change of circumstances had subsequently removed that risk.

Decision of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to a father’s claim that a domestic court (Poland) failed to apply the Hague Convention of 25 October 1980 on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and order the return of his child, and that the failure constituted a breach of Article 8 of the Convention.

Judgment considering which of two possible local authorities should be the designated local authority on the conclusion of care proceedings.

Application for parental orders in respect of twins born conceived by way of IVF subsequent to a commercial surrogacy agreement entered into between the applicants (a British couple) and the respondent birth mother (a Thai national).

Appeal by mother against a declaration that it was lawful and in her child’s best interest to remove his respiratory support and to offer pain relief.

European Court of Human Rights judgment concluding that there had not been an Article 8 violation when a Russian court dismissed an application for contact nor an Article 6 violation when a hearing proceeded in a party’s absence.

Successful appeal by the trustees in bankruptcy of the first respondent against an order that the sale of a property owned by the first and second respondents be postponed until the respondents’ disabled adult child no longer resided at the property.

Judgment of HHJ Bellamy (sitting as High Court judge) determining the habitual residence of a child as a preliminary issue.

Hayden J gives detailed judgment in care proceedings concerning the radicalisation of children by or within their family to join ISIS and/or engage in jihadist activities or support.

Appeal by the sole beneficiary of an estate against a decision under Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 providing the deceased’s cohabitee (who was a man of means) with an option to purchase the property in which he had lived with the deceased.

Roberts J considers the relevance of a ‘stratospheric’, ‘unimaginably high’ marital standard of living to a Pt III MFPA 1984 claim by a wife, distilling the current jurisprudence on Pt III claims, and providing guidance on ‘needs’ claims in ‘big money‘ cases.

Roberts J considers the quantification element (‘Stage II’) of her decision in W’s Part III MFPA 1984 application following a concluded agreement in Russia and where the assets had been generated were nearly exclusively non-matrimonial.

Judgment concerning a child, relinquished for adoption by her parents. The local authority’s application for a care order was dismissed, on the basis that threshold was not made out.