Case Summaries

Judgment in an appeal in care proceedings considering the impact of delay of six months between final hearing and judgment.

Judgment in respect of an application for exceptional funding for legal aid in order to obtain legal representation in proceedings concerning alleged contempt of court.

Judgment in proceedings concerning application under the Adoption and Children Act 2002, section 84, in which the applicants asked the court to dispense with the father’s consent on the ground that the welfare of the children required it.

Application by a mother to relocate permanently with the parties’ 8 year old son to Angola.

Appeal from two judgments of the President concerning the practice and procedure to be adopted in applications to the Court of Protection in deprivation of liberty cases.

Judgment in proceedings challenging the decision by the HFEA to refuse permission to allow export and use of female gametes after death of the donor. Issues of consent, correct use of powers and engagement of Article 8.

Appeal in care/adoption proceedings from the decision of a circuit judge to place the two young children with their paternal aunt (who had only met them once previously) rather than with the single local authority foster carer with whom the children had both lived from the very early stages of their lives and who wished to become their adoptive parent.

Judgment in the Court of Protection considering what constitutes a deprivation of liberty.

Judgment in respect of wife’s application for financial remedy following the parties’ nine and a half year relationship, comprising one year of pre-marital cohabitation and eight and a half years of marriage which, the judge said, “cannot be characterised as a short marriage”.

Appeal by wife against discrete issue of interpretation concerning tax liabilities arising out of the judgment and subsequent order in financial remedy proceedings.

Judgment in the Court of Appeal as to what regard, if any, should be had by a judge, when considering an application to extend the time for appealing in a family case relating to children, to the overall merits of the proposed appeal.

Appeal allowed against direction for psychological assessment where the application was not part 25 FPR 2010 compliant and was in some respects ‘unlawful’

Judgment in care proceedings concerning a six year old child determining applications (i) under Article 15 of Brussels IIa for jurisdiction to be transferred to Latvia; (ii) for permission to oppose an adoption application; and (iii) for determination or directions.

Judgment of the President of the Family Division in a Hague Convention case in which he had made a without notice order on 29 May 2015, in circumstances where unbeknown to him, a stay of execution had previously been extended until 12 June 2015

Domestic violence fact finding – findings made that the father was physically abusive towards the mother.

Judgment considering the impact of a potentially substantial reduction in a party’s life expectancy on financial remedy proceedings.