Category

Children

Jan 04
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Important amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 for single biological parents

By | Children, Law news, News, the family courts | No Comments

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Remedial) Order 2018 came into force on 3 January 2019.  This now allows single biological parents who embark on the journey of surrogacy to apply for a parental order; the making of which has the transformative effect of making that person the legal parent of their child. Prior to this statute did not permit a single applicant, despite being biologically linked to their child, to be recognised in law as the legal parent of their child following the surrogacy process. The groundbreaking case of Z (A Child) (No 2) [2016] EWHC 1191 (Fam)…

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Oct 24
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A New Dawn for Maintenance Payments?

By | Children, financial | No Comments

As you are probably well aware, the Government has struggled to enforce child maintenance payments since time immemorial. This summer, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has taken further steps towards coherent enforcement and has published its response to its own consultation seeking views on a new child maintenance compliance and arrears strategy. The Government has said that these changes, along with previously announced proposals to allow deductions from joint bank accounts, will be introduced during autumn 2018. These measures will complement the existing spectrum of collection and enforcement powers, which are currently employed by the Child Maintenance Service…

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Aug 16
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Habitual residence and child abduction – where are the boundaries?

By | Children, FAQ, Law news, News, the family courts | No Comments

When a child is taken by one parent to a foreign country away from their other parent, emotions will always run high and the law will often be complex. Recently the BBC attempted to explore the legal minefield that is international child abduction law by covering the story of Tracy, whose daughter had been taken by her father, a Czech citizen, from Bradford to the Czech Republic. In the programme the BBC suggested that: ‘Under the Hague Convention, which governs cases of child custody waged across international borders, a child’s base is considered to be the country in which he…

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Jul 30
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Vulnerable witnesses

By | Children, News, the family courts | No Comments

Our new partner, Jeremy Ford, brings to Cambridge Family Law Practice his experience in international family law. Earlier this year, Jeremy, at short notice, represented the children in a fact finding hearing in the High Court which tested the jurisdictional capacity of English law and which considered the best interests of four siblings who had been brought up in different jurisdictions. This case was reported as M v F & Ors [2018] EWHC 1720 (Fam) (16 February 2018) and is a good example of how the court addressed the issue of a litigant in person, who was an alleged perpetrator,…

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