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Judgments

The list below is of key judgments published this year. Click the folders on the left hand side to browse the archive of judgments now available on the site since we started publishing in 2005.

• P (Circumcision Child in Care) [2021] EWHC 1616
  Judgments (20/06/2021)
  Application to circumcise a boy subject to an interim care order
• Q, R and S (children) (RRO Application) [2021] EWHC 1492
  Judgments (20/06/2021)
  Hertfordshire Local Authority (the LA) applied for a reporting restriction order (RRO) in proceedings concerning three children whose mother was murdered by their father.
• M (Children: Applications by Email) [2021] EWCA Civ 806
  Judgments (13/06/2021)
  Court of Appeal allows an appeal stating that the fact that an application is made by email or decided without a hearing does not mean that it should receive less careful scrutiny and there are limits to the use of flexible and informal decision making and the default position is that there should be a hearing, even if conducted remotely.
• X [2021] EWFC 46
  Judgments (13/06/2021)
  First instance judgment of Peel J following a final hearing in care proceedings in which a central issue was the level of risk to the subject child presented by findings of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) made within previous proceedings relating to other children 7 years earlier.
• M v D [2021] EWHC 1351
  Judgments (07/06/2021)
  This case concerns the meaning of the term "associated person" in s. 62(3) of the Family Law Act 1996.
• Re K [2021] EWHC 1409 (Fam)
  Judgments (06/06/2021)
  A rehearing by the President, the Right Honourable Sir Andrew McFarlane, in May 2021, , following a successful appeal in November 2020 of Keehan J’s welfare decisions in September 2020 for placement orders. At the rehearing, there was a concessions that Keehan J’s decision to make placement orders was correct. There was an additional psychological assessment of the parents and an expert recommendation for therapy and rehabilitation, but ultimately the President made the placement orders sought by the local authority and guardian, based on there being no realistic prospect of therapy producing sufficient enduring change.
• Manchester University NHS Trust v Fixsler and Others [2021] EWHC 1426
  Judgments (06/06/2021)
  MacDonald J granted the Trust’s application for a declaration that it was not in the interests of two-year old Alta for life-sustaining treatment to be continued and refused her parents’ application to move her to a hospital in Israel.
• Re L (A Child: Step-Parent Adoption) [2021] EWCA Civ 801
  Judgments (06/06/2021)
  A father’s unsuccessful attempt to appeal against an adoption order in favour of the child’s step-father.
• C v B [2021] EWHC 1369
  Judgments (06/06/2021)
  The case concerned an application by a father for return of two children to Spain under the 1980 Hague Convention.
• J v J (non-recognition of overseas divorce) [2021] EWFC 43
  Judgments (02/06/2021)
  Application by wife for non-recognition of Chinese divorce. Application dismissed
• H-M (Children) [2021] EWCA Civ 748
  Judgments (02/06/2021)
  The Court of Appeal dismissed the mother’s second appeal relating to a fact-finding hearing. The criminal proceedings and the family proceedings had reached incongruent outcomes, in that the mother was in the family court’s pool of perpetrators but was exonerated of causing injury in the criminal court. Jackson LJ’s judgment upheld the lower court’s decision to refuse her application to reopen, and also helpfully sets out some differences between a reopening and an appeal of a fact find, as well as the proper approach when criminal and family court outcomes are incongruent.
• TT (Children: Discharge of Care Order) [2021] EWCA Civ 742
  Judgments (02/06/2021)
  The Court of Appeal sets out the tests to be applied on an application to discharge a care order and also considered the relevance of attachment theory in welfare evaluations. Mostyn J approach to these issues in GM v Carmarthenshire County Council [2018] EWFC 36, [2018] 3 WLR 1126 ('GM”) was overruled.
• D (A Child) [2021] EWCA Civ 787
  Judgments (02/06/2021)
  This is a judgment of Lord Justice Jackson written in plain English. It concerns a successful appeal of the lower court’s decision to sanction removal of O, a newborn baby, from his mother, V, who has learning difficulties.
• Re N (Children) [2021] EWCA Civ 785
  Judgments (02/06/2021)
  Appeal against the making of a placement order. Breach of the Adoption Agency Regulations 2005. Placement order set aside.
• London Borough of Barnet v AG & Others [2021] EWHC 1253
  Judgments (23/05/2021)
  The case concerned children living in the London Borough of Barnet (LBB) about whom the LBB had serious concerns. In January 2020 the 6 children were aged 5, 9, 14, 17 and (twins) 18. Safeguarding referrals were received in November 2019 and January 2020. The children’s parents were a diplomat and his wife, and in November 2019 refused consent for the children to be spoken to at home or at school, relying on diplomatic immunity. After the January 2020 referral the police informed the LBB that diplomatic immunity prevented a police investigation. LBB spoke to the children at school, and the children made allegations of significant physical mistreatment, on occasions requiring medical treatment. The parents claimed that diplomatic immunity prevented the LBB from placing any information about them before the court.
• Manchester City Council v D (Application for Permission Withdraw Proceedings after Abduction) [2021] EWHC 1191
  Judgments (23/05/2021)
  The local authority was granted leave to withdraw care proceedings where the children had been unlawfully abducted to Pakistan and were not likely to be returned. The court however had made the children wards of court and ordered that they be returned to the jurisdiction. The wardship was continued and the judgment passed to the police and Interpol.
• D v E (termination of parental responsibility) [2021] EWFC 37
  Judgments (19/05/2021)
  Application by the mother to terminate the father’s parental responsibility pursuant to s 4 (2A) of the Children Act 1989 granted. Permission also given to change the child’s surname
• Re O (A Child: The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963 [2021] EWHC 908
  Judgments (16/05/2021)
  The court was concerned with O who was born in 2007 and thus 13 years old at the time of judgment. She is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ('DRC') and arrived in the UK around 2nd August 2020. It appears that O’s father died in prison in 2018 and in July 2020 O, her brothers and mother were arrested. O evaded detention and was cared for by a friend of her mother’s K, who eventually brought her to the UK and left her at a bus stop.
• AX v BX & Ors (Revocation of Adoption Order) (Rev 1) [2021] EWHC 1121
  Judgments (16/05/2021)
  This case concerns the legal framework and circumstances in which an application under the inherent jurisdiction for the revocation of a lawfully made adoption order will be granted.
• Barclay v Barclay [2021] EWFC 40
  Judgments (11/05/2021)
  Permission for publication of substantive judgment in financial remedy proceedings refused, reporting restrictions order to remain in place
• Re S (A Child) [2021] EWCA Civ 605
  Judgments (09/05/2021)
  The Court of Appeal ordered a rehearing of a mother’s application for leave to oppose an adoption application, because of procedural unfairness. The local authority’s failure to ensure that the necessary material was available to the mother and the court was criticised.
• Re F & G (Discharge of Special Guardianship Order) [2021] EWCA Civ 622
  Judgments (09/05/2021)
  The Court of Appeal confirmed that a special guardianship order can co-exist with a care order and remitted for re-hearing the question of whether or not the SGO in this case should be discharged.
• CHF & ORS, R (On the Application Of) v Newick Church of England Primary School & Anor [2021] EWCA Civ 613
  Judgments (09/05/2021)
  This was an appeal in respect of an order protecting the identification of the Appellants’ children in any reporting of judicial review proceedings. The Respondents were their children’s primary school and the Council responsible for it.
• A County Council v M & H & T [2021] EWFC 35
  Judgments (07/05/2021)
  A local authority’s application not to assess a grandmother as a carer was granted and the grandmother’s application for a Special Guardianship Order or a Child Arrangements Order was dismissed.
• Akhmedova v Akhmedov & Ors. [2021] EWHC 545
  Judgments (04/05/2021)
  On 21 April 2021, Mrs Justice Knowles handed down the 16th reported judgment in proceedings brought by a wife, Tatiana Akhmedova (‘W’), in her attempts to enforce an award made at the conclusion of financial remedy proceedings in December 2016 against her ex-husband, Farkhad Akhmedov (‘H’).
• Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust v DV (A Child) [2021] EWHC 1037
  Judgments (29/04/2021)
  The case concerned an application by an NHS Trust which would permit them to not provide blood transfusions or treatment involving blood products to a 17 years and 4 month old patient, DL.
• YY (Children: Conduct of the Local Authority) [2021] EWHC 749 (Fam)
  Judgments (25/04/2021)
  Keehan J’s judgement (89 pages) was delivered at the conclusion of a fact-finding hearing on 3 applications: contact to children in care, discharge of care with the making of a special guardianship order to long-term foster carers and permission to change the children’s surname. It describes what found to be “egregious and long-standing failures” by the local authority and he questioned whether its children’s services were fit for purpose. [226-227] The 3 children were 17, 13 and 11. A fourth child C had died at the age of 14 in 2019.
• Re C (A Child) [2021] EWFC 32
  Judgments (25/04/2021)
  A judgment determining, as a preliminary issue, whether the English court had jurisdiction to hear M’s maintenance application brought pursuant to Schedule 1 of the Children Act 1989 following earlier proceedings issued by F in Monaco.
• P (a Child) (Interim Separation) [2021] EWCA Civ 499
  Judgments (25/04/2021)
  A successful appeal resulting in the interim placement of a baby in foster care pending the full hearing.
• NHS Trust v S [2021] EWHC 594 (Fam)
  Judgments (18/04/2021)
  Application by hospital trust for declaration that it is lawful and in the best interests of a nine month old baby to withdraw life-sustaining treatment including ventilation
• Re F (assessment of birth family) [2021] EWFC 31
  Judgments (18/04/2021)
  Application by a Local Authority under Part 18 FPR 2010 to determine whether the “original family” of the mother of F, who was adopted, should be assessed as kinship carers for F. On the facts of the case the Court determined the LA had no obligation to assess but cautioned against this being read as a decision of wider application
• AB v CD [2021] EWHC 819
  Judgments (11/04/2021)
  In a private law children case with cross-allegations of domestic abuse, Mrs Justice Roberts of the High Court allowed a father’s appeal against Recorder Armitage’s findings of rape and threats to remove their child to Pakistan, following a 4-day fact-finding hearing. Roberts J determined that the manner in which the Recorder reached her conclusions was flawed, and the case was remitted for an early rehearing.
• Re W and Re Z (EU Settled Status for Looked After Children) [2021] EWHC 783
  Judgments (11/04/2021)
  This case examines in general the ambit of section 33 of the Children Act 1989 and in particular how local authorities should approach applications for immigration status for those children in their care. Some children will be subject to care orders which confers parental responsibility upon the local authority. Section 33 permits the local authority to restrict the exercise of parental responsibility by others such as parents, when it is necessary for the child’s welfare.
• AB v CD (Abduction: Undertakings) [2021] EWHC 665
  Judgments (09/04/2021)
  Hague Convention proceedings in which Mr Justice Peel rejected the mother’s defences and ordered the return of children aged 7 and 3 to Kazakhstan notwithstanding the father’s undertakings would not be enforceable in that jurisdiction.
• AB v CD & Ors [2021] EWHC 741
  Judgments (06/04/2021)
  An application by, AB, the mother of a child, XY for a declaration that she and CD, the child’s father, have the legal ability to consent to the administration of hormone treatment to suppress puberty, known as “PBs”/puberty blockers. The case concerned a 15 year-old child, with Gender Dysphoria, who was born a boy, came out as transgender at age 10, and had transitioned socially in all aspects of life, including legal paper work, which included a name change by deed poll.
• Parfitt v Guy's and St Thomas' Children's NHS Foundation Trust & Anor [2021] EWCA Civ 362
  Judgments (28/03/2021)
  This case concerns a child (aged almost 6 years) who suffers with acute necrotising encephalopathy ("ANE") from which she developed serious illness and ultimately slipped into a persistent vegetative state ("PVS").
• Rezai-Namaghi v Atapour [2020] EWHC 3729 (Fam)
  Judgments (25/03/2021)
  This case is an important reminder of the need to ensure that the relevant formalities have been complied with. In this case the critical issue was whether or not decree nisi had been pronounced.
• FRB v DCA (no 3) [2020] EWHC 3696
  Judgments (21/03/2021)
  Insufficient evidence to support an application to vary a final order in financial remedy proceedings on the basis that the economic impact of COVID -19 constituted a Barder event
• SZ v Birmingham City Council & Ors [2021] EWFC 15
  Judgments (21/03/2021)
  This was a decision of Mr Justice Mostyn to summarily dismiss a father’s application for contact with two children in care.
• A (Child Abduction Article 13b) [2021] EWCA Civ 328
  Judgments (19/03/2021)
  Successful appeal from an order for the summary return of a child to the USA in light of new evidence
• Re H (Children: Findings of Fact) [2021] EWCA Civ 319
  Judgments (14/03/2021)
  Appeal against findings that the father sexually abused his daughter and step-daughter. Detailed examination of the trial judge’s reasoning. Appeal dismissed.
• AA and BB [2021] EWFC 17
  Judgments (14/03/2021)
  Decision of Mr Nicholas Cusworth QC sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge on 17 February 2021 considering Article 13 of the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Cooperation in respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children (“The 1996 Convention”)
• East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust v GH (Out of Hours Application) [2021]EWCOP 18
  Judgments (12/03/2021)
  Macdonald J gives judgment on an out of hours application in which a health trust sought authority to remove a woman, who was in obstructed labour, from her home to hospital to deliver the baby there, including an emergency Caesarean operation if necessary. He granted the application.
• BB(Children) [2021] EWFC 20
  Judgments (11/03/2021)
  An application which raised the question of the court’s power to dismiss an application and the evidential implications of an application by a Local Authority to seek to withdraw allegations at an interim stage during a fact – finding hearing
• Durrell v Scaife[2021]
  Judgments (11/03/2021)
  Sentence of eight weeks ordered in committal proceedings for calling the Judge “a stupid cunt” and putting the judge in fear of his safety
• Kicinski v Pardi [2021] EWHC 499 (Fam)
  Judgments (11/03/2021)
  Appeal against decision that the Thwaite jurisdiction did not apply to the executory Rose order the parties had agreed in settlement of financial proceedings allowed and order varied.
• Hussain[2021] EWFC 13
  Judgments (11/03/2021)
  Application for permission to appeal out of time a final order in financial remedy proceedings made in 2018 allowed
• A (A Child) (1980 Hague Convention: Set Aside) [2021] EWCA Civ 194
  Judgments (07/03/2021)
  A father successfully appealed a decision to set aside a return order.
• Re O (Judgment: Adequacy of Reasons) [2021] EWCA Civ 149
  Judgments (01/03/2021)
  Appeal against findings that the father sexually abused his daughter. Appeal allowed; case remitted for rehearing.
• Project for the Registration of children as British citizens & Anor [2021]
  Judgments (01/03/2021)
  Appeal and cross appeal concerning the fees charged for children to register as British citizens. Court upheld finding that the Secretary of State had failed in her duty under s.55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 to assess children’s best interests and ensure that these were a primary consideration
• R (Children: Control of Court Documents) [2021] EWCA Civ 162
  Judgments (22/02/2021)
  An appeal in which the court deals with “the Family Court's powers to control the distribution of sensitive material and the principles on which such powers should be exercised.” [11]
• WX v HX (Treatment of Matrimonial and Non-Matrimonial Property) [2021] EWHC 241 (Fam) (10 February 2021)
  Judgments (18/02/2021)
  Application for a financial remedy order in a 33-year marriage, involving the identification of matrimonial and non-matrimonial property.
• G (Abduction Consent discretion) [2021] EWCA Civ 139 (09 February 2021)
  Judgments (18/02/2021)
  The case concerned an appeal against a return order made under the 1980 Hague Convention. The appeal mainly centred on the judge’s exercise of his discretion to make a return order, although the father challenged the findings made on the issue of consent.
• AG v VD[ 2021] EWFC 9
  Judgments (17/02/2021)
  Matrimonial finance proceedings with a jurisdictional issue resolved in favour of the English court despite previous financial proceedings in Russia. H lost on his assertion that he had transferred most of his wealth to his son from a previous marriage. But H’s substantial assets from property development businesses were determined to be pre-marital. The matter therefore concluded with an award based on need, not on sharing as sought by W.
• Lancashire CC v G (No 4)(Continuing Unavailability of Regulated Placement) 2021 EWHC 244 (Fam)
  Judgments (17/02/2021)
  This is a sad case seeking to raise the alarm about the drastic shortage of regulated placements capable of meeting the welfare needs of children with complex emotional and behavioural needs. The case concerned G who, in Mr Justice MacDonald’s words, is “a highly troubled and vulnerable young woman with multifaceted emotional and behavioural difficulties and at high risk of serious self-harm or suicide”.
• Derhalli v Derhalli [2021] EWCA Civ 112
  Judgments (15/02/2021)
  A husband’s unsuccessful second appeal in possession proceedings which depended upon the proper interpretation of a Consent Order in financial remedy proceedings.
• TK v. ML [2021] EWFC 8
  Judgments (15/02/2021)
  Mostyn J emphasises the prime criterion of temporal proximity when seeking to establish a causal link for the purposes of relying on residual jurisdiction The preliminary issue before the court was whether it had jurisdiction to hear M’s C100 application pursuant to s.8 CA 1989.
• IU v OS [2020] EWFC 98
  Judgments (12/02/2021)
  This case concerned an application for a financial remedy brought by IU, a wife (‘W’), against OS, her husband (‘H’).
• A City Council v X, Y and Q (DOLS: Lack of secure placement)[2021] EWHC 123 (Fam)
  Judgments (08/02/2021)
  
• JB (a child) Re (sexual abuse allegations) [2021] EWCA Civ 46
  Judgments (08/02/2021)
  Appeal against findings of sexual abuse on the basis of allegations made by a child for the first time at age nine about incidents that had happened some 4-5 years previously upheld.
• Finch v Baker [2021] EWCA Civ 72
  Judgments (03/02/2021)
  This was a 2nd appeal in a financial provision case. Moylan LJ gave the only substantive judgment. The appeal was dismissed.
• A Local Authority v TA & Others [2021] EWCOP 3
  Judgments (27/01/2021)
  Judgment handed down by Mr Justice Cobb on 22nd January 2021
• Salford CC v W and Ors [2021] EWHC 61 (Fam)
  Judgments (27/01/2021)
  MacDonald J in the High Court, Family Division: (1) dismissed a prohibited steps order application preventing Roman Catholic sacraments for children ages 4-11 in a proposed Special Guardianship setting, and (2) adjourned an application for a declaration on their legal status (for purposes of eventually determining the local authority’s obligation to pay remuneration), pending involvement in the question from both local authorities (Norfolk and Suffolk).
• OX44/2020 [2021] EWHC 91 (Fam)
  Judgments (26/01/2021)
  Applications pursuant to Part 19 FPR 2010 within adoption proceedings to determine whether the local authority is under a duty to notify the Romanian Central Authority of the proceedings and if not, should their assistance be sought to identify the birth father and wider family.
• A Local Authority v JK & Anor [2021] EWHC 33 (Fam)
  Judgments (25/01/2021)
  Application by Local Authority for orders under FPR Part 19 r14.21 and inherent jurisdiction to endorse decision not to disclose a child’s existence to his father and maternal family dismissed. Court critical of delay in applications
• F v M [2021] EWFC 4
  Judgments (22/01/2021)
  Mr Justice Hayden’s detailed judgment, making extensive findings of coercive and controlling behaviour, underlines the need for the court to assess a pattern or series of acts cumulatively.
• Rattan v Kuwad [2021] EWCA Civ 1
  Judgments (18/01/2021)
  A wife’s successful appeal from an order allowing a husband’s appeal against a maintenance pending suit order.
• London Borough of Southwark v A Family [2020] EWHC 3117 (Fam)
  Judgments (08/01/2021)
  
• Crowther v Crowther & Ors [2020] EWHC 3555 (Fam)
  Judgments (07/01/2021)
  Successful application for indemnity costs on preliminary issues in financial remedy proceedings when allegations of fraud and conspiracy were withdrawn and claims discontinued shortly before the trial.
• RE AB (Court of Protection: Police Disclosure) [2019] EWCOP 66
  Judgments (07/01/2021)
  The Court considered an application by a ‘Police Force’ for disclosure of psychological reports prepared in relation to AB who was and is the subject of proceedings in the Court of Protection and who is an immensely vulnerable person.
• Z v University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust & Ors [2020] EWCOP 69
  Judgments (07/01/2021)
  A decision by Mr Justice Cohen in the Court of Protection, which reiterated his previous decision to end life sustaining treatment for RS, an unconscious man in a vegetative state. This application had been brought by RS’s estranged birth family, who argued that RS would wish to be kept alive based on his Catholic faith and who sought to move him to Poland.
• M v H ( private law vaccination) [2020] EWFC 93
  Judgments (06/01/2021)
  MacDonald J granted a specific issue order authorising the administration of vaccinations to two children, ages 6 and 4 in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule. In doing so he considered the role of the court in this area, the application of the principles set out in Re H (A Child: Parental Responsibility: Vaccination) [2020] EWCA Civ 664 in private law disputes, the use of expert evidence and the approach to proportionality under Article 8.
• London Borough of Lambeth v L (Unlawful Placement) [2020] EWHC 3383 (Fam)
  Judgments (06/01/2021)
  Authorisation of deprivation of liberty of a 13 year old boy in a placement out of jurisdiction – local authority had delayed significantly in issuing application – reminder that a local authority leaves itself open to liability in damages (sometimes considerable) if a child is placed in circumstances amounting to a deprivation of liberty without first seeking such an order