Case Summaries

Application by a husband for Decrees Absolute and Nisi, and all related orders be set aside due to issues with service.

General civil restraint order, costs orders, and injunctions under the Protection from Harassment Act 1977 (which included protection for the applicant’s solicitor and barrister) granted in one of the worst cases of vexatious litigation misconduct Mostyn J had ever encountered.

It was in the interests of AB to be fitted with an intrauterine contraceptive device when she underwent a caesarean section with a spinal anaesthetic.

MacDonald J’s judgment in a final hearing of care proceedings, in which he rejected a request by the mother to revisit earlier findings of non-accidental injury on the basis of a subsequent admission by the father. The judge further favoured an ICO, rather than a final care order or SGO, as the appropriate means to test a placement with the child’s grandparents.

An appeal by a local authority against an order made by Her Honour Judge Cronin, on 29 July of this year by which she discharged a care order in respect of six children. Human Rights Act considerations.

A court should be wary of making findings/orders on alternate bases ‘just in case’, as this can over-complicate matters which should be kept simple. In this instance, the court’s making of an order setting aside a disposition under s37 MCA 1973, when no application had been made and no submissions on that basis heard, and when in any event the husband had been found to hold the beneficial interest in the relevant property.

The court therefore allowed the appeal on two grounds but this did not cause any alteration of the final order made in financial remedy proceedings, and did not require the setting aside of that order in its totality as sought by the appellant and the husband.

The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal in judicial review proceedings concerning the provision of and payment for services under Care Act 2014 and Children and Families Act 2014. It also considered the circumstances when a family member can be a litigation friend.

Keehan J orders a change of residence as the only realistic option to meet the child’s welfare best interests in a case of parental alienation. Reliance upon the expert evidence of Dr Braier; inadequacies in the reports of the SW and NYAS caseworker.

The case concerned an appeal against a committal of the appellant mother who had failed to comply with orders to return the parties’ children to Mexico.

Application to execute a statutory will of an individual while not serving that person's son.

Appeal by a father against the dismissal of an application for a prohibited steps order where the mother had sought permission to temporarily remove the child to Iraq.

Application by Lincolnshire County Council to determine whether a 51-year-old-man had capacity with regards to his contact with sex workers.

Mr Justice MacDonald held that the continuation of life-sustaining medical treatment was in the best interests of Tafida Raqeeb, a 5 year old girl who had been left with extensive and irreversible damage to her brain as a result of a non-traumatic brain injury. The decision was described by the Judge as a “grave, multifaceted and complex one”.

Case concerning the scope of Cafcass’ statutory function; held that the court has no power to appoint Cafcass to work with and advise upon a non-subject, non-party child.

The case concerned an application by a Local Authority (LA) for an injunction under the Court’s inherent jurisdiction to prevent KR from living together with his wife ST. It was accepted that KR had capacity to make decisions about where to live and who he lived with and he therefore did not fall within the scope of the Mental Capacity Act 2005