Case Summaries

Judgment by Baker J in appeal by a husband against two orders by which (i) a decree of nullity was granted, and (ii) an application to have it set aside was refused. Appeal disallowed.

Judgment of Mostyn J in which he backdated and capitalised periodical payments, ordered costs, froze assets and made injunctions against the respondent.

Judgment as to whether the courts of England and Wales had jurisdiction over a nine-year-old boy in respect of matters of parental responsibility or whether jurisdiction rested with the courts of Northern Ireland.

Sentencing decision in respect of the finding of the husband acting with contemptuous disregard of orders and an undertaking in Hart v Hart [2018] EWHC 548 (Fam)

Decision in protracted enforcement and committal proceedings following repeated failures by a husband to provide documentation required to allow the wife to take over the running of a company

Judgment of Keehan J in “two of the most egregious abuses of section 20 accommodation” by local authorities.

Decision of the Court of Appeal confirming that the winnings of a professional gambler with no other source of income were not ‘earnings’ to be taken into account for the purposes of a child maintenance assessment.

Appeal in relation to decisions taken in family proceedings and the approach taken by the same judge in related Court of Protection proceedings.

Application to determine the capacity of a woman to make decisions about her care, and her capacity to consent to marriage.

Applications by a local authority to determine what role, if any, the father of two girls should play in both legal proceedings concerning them and, more generally, in local authority decision-making about their welfare.

Unsuccessful appeal by Wife against an order registering a French divorce order pursuant to the provisions of Council Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003 (BIIR).

Appeal before Baker J in private law children proceedings where the court at first instance had made a finding that the children were not habitually resident in England and Wales and consequently the English court had no jurisdiction to make orders under section 8 of the Children Act 1989. The appeal was partially successful insofar as the court was found to have overlooked its residual jurisdiction to make orders in respect of the children on the basis of their physical presence in the jurisdiction. However the appeal was dismissed as the judge at first instance’s findings of fact and orders were upheld.

Application for a parental order pursuant to section 54 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 arising in respect of a foreign surrogacy.

An application to set aside a default judgment regarding a judgment debt for professional fees and interest in favour of a firm of solicitors

Appeal in care proceedings dismissed but the Court of Appeal made clear that it should not be necessary for an appeal court to undertake a laborious explanatory exercise of the kind contained in this judgment. Confirmation that “nothing else will do” applies only to cases involving a plan for adoption.

A successful appeal from an order releasing the wife from an undertaking in a consent order to repay the husband certain monies due to a significant change in circumstances.