What is a special guardianship order? A Special Guardianship order is one that members of a child’s family may consider where the child or children are being cared for permanently by family members other than their parents. This could apply for example to grandparents, aunts or uncles. There are a…
Since the early 1990s Child Support Agency (CSA) (now called the Child Maintenance Service (CMS)) has dealt with financial support for children. This means that in the majority of cases the court cannot decide how much child support is payable. However, where one or other parent lives outside England or…
As a firm we’ve been in-undated with calls and emails from separated parents begging for clarity around whether their children should be seeing both parents at the moment. The headlines are confusing, social media is scary and juggling work and home schooling is a huge ask for parents. Add to…
A parent paying maintenance towards the care of their child will often approach our lawyers for advice when they are being denied a relationship, asking do they have to continue to pay. A recent case illustrates how complicated this area of law is. The case of EA v SSWP and…
This blog was written prior to the change in divorce law in April 2022. With a flurry of divorce and family law cases recently leaving social media agog, none seems to have caught the attention of lawyers and the general public like the appeal made by a 66-year-old woman against…
A shocking report in 2014 revealed that a teenager sitting their GCSEs is more likely to own a smartphone than live with their father. The Fractured Families report, from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), also showed that a million children have no significant contact with their dads. The publication…
Cafcass stands for Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service and its role in children proceedings is both to make sure children’s voices are heard and that decisions are taken in their best interests (which is not always the same thing – what a child says he or she…
Social media is an established part of our world now and with live tweeting from Courts, the possibility of service of legal documents via Facebook message and pages and pages of screenshots being submitted in evidence, it is having a profound influence on family law legal proceedings. As a family…
The ‘Missing Mum’ case involving Rebecca Minnock who fled with her 3 year old son in anticipation of a Court decision that the little boy should live not with her but with his father has attracted some lurid headlines and furore on social media in the past week. Quite separate…
Single parents, absent fathers, parent with care. What’s in a name? I am often surprised at how people expect their status as a parent to change, simply because their relationship status does. Being a partner and a spouse is something that can cease or change depending on the choice of…
This blog was written prior to the change in divorce law on 6 April 2022, which introduced no fault divorce. The divorce process has come a long way since Henry VIII but it has been in a fairly familiar shape since the 1960s. Does it need change now though to…
This blog was written prior to the change in law in April 2022 which introduced no fault divorce. For advice on your personal circumstances take advantage of a free telephone appointment with one of our lawyers – book here. Since divorce was first introduced into English law in the time…