‘Oliver Jones, barrister of 4 Paper Buildings, and Maria Wright, solicitor of Freemans, currently seconded to the Court of Appeal, analyse a series of recent judgments in which the English courts have considered whether public law children proceedings should be in this jurisdiction or abroad.’
Family Law Week, 27th March 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
FAS v Bradford Metropolitan District Council and another [2015] EWHC 622 (Fam); [2015] WLR (D) 128
‘It remained the case that the court would rarely make an adoption order when it would confer no benefits upon the child during its childhood but gave it a right of abode for the rest of its life. The proposition to that effect in In re B (A Minor) (Adoption Order: Nationality) [1999] 2 AC 136, 141–142, decided in the context of section 6 of the Adoption Act 1976 and the need to promote and safeguard the welfare of the child “throughout his childhood”, still applied despite the change in the welfare test effected by the Adoption and Children Act 2002, which now provided that the paramount (as opposed to the first) consideration was the child’s welfare “throughout his life”. Thus, where the court was in effect being asked to use adoption to confer citizenship prospectively upon an adult the courts were reluctant to trespass upon the area of the Home Secretary’s authority entrusted to him by Parliament.’
WLR Daily, 13th March 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘The single father in the recent case B v C & Others (Surrogacy: Adoption) [2015] EWFC 17 (Fam) successfully obtained an adoption order which was the only means open to him to secure his legal relationship with his surrogate son. Alison Hunt of Park Square Barristers represented the father in this unique case in the Family Court before Mrs Justice Theis. The judgment opens the way for other single would-be parents to proceed in the same way, but it also highlights the very real pitfalls and uncertainty which await them in this difficult process. It raises questions about whether parental orders should be available to single applicants as they are for couples.’
Park Square Barristers, 9th March 2015
Source: www.parksquarebarristers.co.uk
‘David Bedingfield, barrister of 4 Paper Buildings, considers the President’s judgment in A (A Child) [2015] EWFC 11 and the lessons to be derived by practitioners.’
Family Law Week, 9th March 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘Anne-Marie Hutchinson OBE, Partner, and Colin Rogerson, Solicitor Advocate, both of Dawson Cornwell, consider the options for single parents seeking legal parentage of children born through a surrogacy arrangement.’
Family Law Week, 6th March 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘John Tughan QC of 4 Paper Buildings reviews recent judgments of particular importance to all practitioners in public children law.’
Family Law Week, 3rd March 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘A woman acted as a surrogate mother for a baby whose biological father is her adult son, a family court judge has been told.’
The Guardian, 4th March 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘In a scathing judgment, the president of the Family Division has condemned as “social engineering” a local authority’s application to remove a baby boy permanently from the care of his father and place him for adoption.’
UK Human Rights Blog, 25th February 2015
Source: www.ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘A woman who faked her own pregnancy after years of infertility has been convicted of smuggling a child into Britain after apparently buying it from a Nigerian “baby farm” and passing it off as her own.’
The Independent, 6th February 2015
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘The first two reported cases of the year in the Family Court are both concerned with the difficulties litigants – not to mention practitioners, and the courts – are now faced with when trying to navigate the legal aid system. The first – about which we posted here – concerned an unrepresented father who couldn’t get legal aid despite needing to cross-examine a child who had accused him of abuse, leading to the court to order that he be funded outside the legal aid scheme.’
Full story
Legal Aid Handbook, 11th January 2015
Source: www.legalaidhandbook.com
‘The president of the Family Division has described as ‘unconscionable’ delays over legal aid funding which have held up a case concerning the removal of a child from his parents.’
7th January 2015
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
‘A couple left in “agony” to fight against the enforced adoption of their three-year-old son could be forgiven for thinking they are trapped in a system which is “neither compassionate nor even humane,” the most senior family court judge in England and Wales has said.’
The Guardian, 7th January 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
In re R (A Child) [2014] EWCA Civ 1625; [2014] WLR (D) 539
‘In re B-S (Children) (Adoption Order: Leave to Oppose) [2014] 1 WLR 563 had not been intended to change and had not changed the law; it was primarily directed to practice. Where adoption was in the child’s best interests local authorities were not to shy away from seeking, nor courts from making, care orders with a plan for adoption, placement orders and adoption orders.’
WLR Daily, 16th December 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Sir James Munby seeks to head off collapse in adoption placements warning that children could be put at risk by new obsession with keeping them with relatives ‘at all costs’.’
Full story
Daily Telegraph, 16th December 2014
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
‘Lance Dodgson, barrister of Bank House Chambers, considers the changes concerning post-adoption contact made by the Children and Families Act 2014 and asks what effect they will have in practice.’
Family Law Week, 11th November 2014
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘John Tughan, barrister, of 4 Paper Buildings reviews recent important judgments in public law children cases.’
Family Law Week, 5th November 2014
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘A student with a history of severe mental illness has been told by a family court judge that her toddler son must be adopted.’
The Guardian, 3rd November 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘One of Britain’s most senior judges has launched a withering attack on cuts to legal aid after a couple with learning disabilities was not provided with a lawyer to fight the forced adoption of their two-year-old son.’
The Independent, 31st October 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘A “change of circumstances” for the purposes of an application for permission to apply to revoke a placement order under section 24 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 had to be a change which had occurred since the making of the placement order and whichwas relevant to the circumstances of the case. It would be unacceptable to exclude any change in circumstances to the children who were the subject of the orders.’
WLR Daily, 21st October 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Life is a mysterious journey, often attended with hazards matching those in The Lord of the Rings. However, as TV programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? illustrate, we all have a deep need to understand our place in the world and how we came to inhabit our own ‘mortal coil’. This can be particularly poignant for adopted people and their successors.’
Law Society’s Gazette, 13th October 2014
Source: www.lawgazette.co.uk
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