Where a child who lives in England and Wales goes abroad with one parent - for a holiday, a family visit, an agreed trip - and is then not returned, the question is not immediately who the child should live with. It is which country's…
Anonymised accounts of family law matters our team has worked on, written to show how the law was applied and why a particular approach was taken. Every account is published with the client's consent, with names, dates, places and identifying details changed or left out. Every case turns on its own facts, so nothing on this page predicts or promises the outcome of any other case.
Answering An Allegation Of Drug Misuse Before Contact Could Resume
Contact between a parent and a child had stopped because of an allegation that the parent was misusing drugs. An allegation of this kind creates a particular difficulty. Until the court knows whether it is made out it cannot assess the risk, and for as…
Settling A Disagreement Between Parents Over A Child’s Medical Treatment
Consenting to medical treatment for a child is an exercise of parental responsibility. Children Act 1989 s.2(7) provides that where more than one person has parental responsibility for a child, each of them may act alone and without the other in meeting that responsibility —…
A grandparent becoming a special guardian for a grandchild
A grandchild needs to be brought up by a grandparent, either because the grandparent is already the person caring for the child or because the child cannot remain with a parent. The grandparent needs authority that is real and durable: enough to enrol the child…
Answering An Alienation Allegation Where A Child’s Reluctance Had Another Explanation
A child is reluctant to spend time with one parent. That parent's case is that the reluctance has been caused by the other parent - by manipulation, by hostility, by denigration, by making the child feel that going would be a betrayal. The parent the…
Bringing Repeated Court Applications To A Stop
Applications about the same child had been made repeatedly. Each one required the other parent to respond, to file evidence and to attend hearings, and each one reopened arrangements that had already been decided. The legal question was not whether the latest application should succeed.…
Restarting Contact After It Stopped, And Reaching Shared Care
Shared care agreedThe parents separated around the time their child was born. The parent the child did not live with built up regular, unsupervised contact over a period, including time at their own home. There was no allegation and no welfare concerns standing in the way of…
Domestic Abuse And Child Contact: When Direct Contact Is Suspended
Application not grantedA very young child lived with one parent. The relationship had involved a pattern of controlling behaviour: restrictions on where that parent could go, controls over their appearance, and a requirement to report their movements and prove where they were. The other parent did not…
Stopping A Threatened Removal Of A Child From The UK
Child arrangements settledA very young child lived with one parent. The other parent said they intended to take the child out of the United Kingdom to be brought up by relatives abroad, and that the child would never see the parent they lived with again. There had…
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