Research Questions, Quality of Some Expert Witness Reports in Family Courts

The quality of Psychological Experts and their reports used for family proceedings shows some inconsistencies according to Research carried out by the University of Central Lancashire. The study considered over 120 Expert’s Psychological Reports used for proceedings between 2009 and …

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New Family Arbitration Service

In family law, there are a wide range of disputes from financial issues in divorce proceedings to contact problems.  There have historically been three ways to resolve these matters. They are as follows:- Negotiation – this is where the parties …

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Clare’s Law : Domestic Violence Update

People in some parts of England and Wales will soon be able to find out from the police if their partner has a history of domestic violence, under  ‘Clare’s Law’, so named after Clare Wood who died in 2009 at …

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Losing My Religion

How do courts deal with parents who each want their child to be brought up following their own different and opposing religious beliefs? In a recent case the High Court dealt with a case involving a mother who was a …

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Extending marriage to accommodate same-sex couples

Stonewall - a charity committed to achieving equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people - has recently published a draft parliamentary bill intended to extend the legal form of marriage to same-sex couples in England and Wales. The bill itself - titled the …

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Legal right for parents to see their children

This Government is considering a number of ways to try and support family life with both parents playing a significant role in the lives of their children.   In a separate article on this website there is reference to a Government …

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Family Solicitor Devon: Pension sharing – on the up

The Telegraph recently reported that pension sharing orders in divorce settlements rose by 11% last year.   This trend looks likely to persist given that it has also been recently announced that the divorce rate has just risen for the first …

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Forcing fathers to sign birth certificates

Parents who have Parental Responsibility for a child have what is described in the Children Act as “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which, by Law, the parent of a child has in relation to the child and …

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Pre-nuptial agreements after Radmacher

A recent Court of Appeal case was the first of its kind to apply the new principles adopted by the English Courts to pre-nuptial agreements. The appeal in V v V was heard in October 2011 and followed the landmark …

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Severing the Joint Tenancy

A recent case has highlighted the implications of not properly and promptly severing the joint tenancies of property following the separation of a married couple. If a property is owned as joint tenants, it means that the owners together own …

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