Case Summaries

This case involved financial remedies proceedings between H, aged 47 and W, aged 43, who had 2 children, 3 and 9 years old.

The Court of Appeal granted the mother’s appeal against a placement order.

MacDonald J grants a short extension to a DOLS order in circumstances where there continues to be an acute lack of appropriate resources for children requiring therapeutic care within a restrictive environment.

A High Court decision that the court in England & Wales had no continuing jurisdiction with respect to a child who had been born and was living in Antigua, simply because a limited contact direction had been made by the English court when she had been covertly brough to England by her father for a total of 10 days.

Appeal against placement order allowed following a deficient analysis at first instance.

Successful appeal of a third party costs order made by HHJ Tolson QC against a local authority in ongoing private law proceedings.

The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal against the order of Mostyn J reported at [2021] EWFC 23, [2022] 1 FLR 513 refusing the wife’s application for maintenance under s27 Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 and substituted an order for the husband to pay £10000 p.a. until further order or the wife’s remarriage. The wife’s application for a lump sum was adjourned indefinitely.

This case concerns the difficulties caused in family proceedings arising from the delay in completion of Post-Mortem reports following the death of a child. Such cases reach the family court where there is a surviving sibling, and where uncertainty about the cause of death might give cause for concern that the surviving child is also at risk of harm.

Arbuthnot J determines an application by Barts Health NHS Trust in respect of a 12 year old boy.

This case concerned an application by H for a Reporting Restriction order (‘RRO’) ahead of a final hearing in W’s application for financial remedies.

This judgment concerned the attribution and division of costs following final determination of a W’s needs-based claim in a short and childless marriage.

MacDonald J made an order for the summary return of a child in 1980 Hague Convention proceedings, holding that the child was habitually resident in Malta on the date of his retention and rejecting the father’s “defences”.

Peel J considers the law on the effect of pre-marital cohabitation and engagement on the sharing principle, conduct and the needs principle in a short marriage. He reserved the question of costs.

Appeal of the lower court’s decision not to award the wife monies to meet her liabilities and child care costs

Peel J determined jurisdictional issues in respect of two children who have been living with family members in Libya since August 2020.