Same sex marriage has effectively been declared legal in Brazil after the country’s National Council of Justice (NCJ) announced that notaries can no longer refuse to marry gay couples. The Council, which includes prominent lawyers and judges, voted fourteen to one in favour of the measure, which will also require notaries to... Read More
You only need to walk through the Central Family Court waiting room to hear disgruntled parents getting angry with their legal team regarding an intention to change the child’s surname. There are a number of situations in which this issue may arise, but the most common is when the mother wishes to change the child’s surname... Read More
A study by the Open University has put paid to the rose-tinted spectacles view of marriage in the eighteenth century. According to historian Anne Laurence, the idea that, during this period marriages became a thing of romance – befitting the era’s association, culturally, with Romanticism – they were in fact rather mercenary.... Read More
In March 2015 the Law Commission published a consultation paper entitled: 'Enforcement of Family Financial Orders'. Here is an in-depth look at its aims and recommendations.
The Law Commission have put forward reforms to improve the way family financial orders are enforced more effective and more efficient. They have also suggested introducing new... Read More
Mostyn J has passed judgment in the case of MG and JG v JF EWHC 564 (Fam), awarding an order for costs funding against a father of ‘reasonable means’, and delivering a damning critique of the state of legal aid in private cases. Facts MG and JG, the applicant mothers, were civil partners. In 2005, they decided they wanted a... Read More
An unlikely feud has broken out in the upper echelons of the music and fashion worlds. Veteran musician and all-round British institution Elton John launched a campaign against Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana on social media after they spoke out against gay adoptions and IVF in an interview with Italian news magazine... Read More
According to a report in the Moscow Times, Moscow City Hall has rolled out a social services scheme that offers residents a handyman’s help on demand whenever there is a requirement for traditionally 'masculine' work. In other words, fixing shelves and repairing leaking taps. According to the website of private company, Moscow... Read More
National domestic abuse charity SafeLives has published some troubling research into the time taken for domestic violence victims to get proper help. SafeLives, which was previously known as the Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA), focuses its work on high-risk victims.
In its report entitled ‘Getting It Right First Time’, the... Read More
In December 2014, the Working Group on Financial Remedies published its final report, which put forward a number of recommendations for improvement of financial remedies in family law. Resolution, a group that campaigns for improvements to the family justice system, has now taken on board the opinions of its member body and, in light of... Read More
Children will be given a louder voice in the family courts as Justice Minister Simon Hughes announces plans for change. The Liberal Democrat MP, addressing the Family Justice Young People’s Board (FJYPB), outlined ways in which children and young people could be given a greater say in what happens to them in the event of any kind of family... Read More