A number of key legal practitioners gave evidence on 20 December 2016 to the Justice Committee’s inquiry on the implication of Brexit on the justice system. It is reported that they say Brexit will not only cause major issues in divorce and other family law proceedings, but also will adversely affect international families who live in the UK and... Read More
Legal Action for Women published a dossier this week, with the intent of addressing what it describes as “the traumatic and discriminatory treatment of children, mothers and grandmothers by the state and the institutions who are in charge of child protection”. The take home message from the dossier was that, whereas removing children from... Read More
On Thursday last week the Law Commission published its report on the enforcement of family financial orders. The commission took issue with how difficult it is in the current system to recover money owed in financial orders, finding both the complexity of the regulations and the limitations on the family courts to be at fault. The... Read More
On Sunday it was reported that Hollywood icon Zsa Zsa Gabor had passed away at her Los Angeles Home, aged 99. The Hungarian beauty queen had spent nearly 75 years in the spotlight starring in over seventy films including Moulin Rouge (1952) and Lili (1953) however it was often remarked that the most famous character she played was her own.... Read More
Today, the UK’s fertility regulator approved a controversial technique to create embryos with the DNA of two women and one man. Described by Sally Cheshire, the chairwoman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), as “a decision of historic importance”, the aim is to prevent children being born with incurable... Read More
Earlier this week, international media attention pivoted once again to the Hollywood heartbreak of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Engaged in a bitter dispute over the separation of assets, the family tribe has recently come under scrutiny as child arrangements moves to the forefront of the legal battle. As a playground for the rich and famous,... Read More
This week, the High Court heard a dispute over a deceased man’s will, which included a clause that gave his wife control over his daughters’s £9M trust fund. Richard Thornton, a wealthy financier, died in 2013 aged 81. The dispute before the court is between the stepmother and the deceased’s two daughters, the latter claiming that their... Read More
On Monday, the Office for National Statistics revealed that the UK divorce rate is at a 40-year low. Statistician Nicola Haines cited a rise in cohabitation and an older average marrying age as likely factors behind the decline. Cohabitation can provide couples with the opportunity to test the waters before plunging into marriage, which may... Read More
Last week, fertility specialist Dr Luciano Nardo, called for the reversal of the ‘right to know’ law, as hopeful parents face empty sperm banks.
The decision by the UK Parliament to remove anonymity for those sperm and egg donors who registered after 1 April 2005 has always been controversial. Since then children born through IVF can apply for... Read More
The West London family court at Barnet has ruled in a contested custody case that it is "essential" for the children of a divorced Jewish couple to continue to see their father. The children's mother, who is raising the children in a Jewish Satmar ultra-Orthodox community in North London, challenged the child arrangements on the basis that the... Read More