Child Finances

Bringing a child into the UK for the purposes of adoption is a criminal offence, punishable with up to 12 month’s imprisonment and/or a fine. In order to bring a child into the UK for the purposes of adoption, there are strict regulations that need to be complied with, preferably in advance of bringing the child in. It is vital to seek legal advice prior to bringing a child who you wish to adopt into the UK.

This article will address the extent to which a parent can move their child away from the other parent without their consent. A distinction will be made between moving the child to another part of the UK, as well as moving abroad.
It should be noted from the outset that whether the parties have ever been married or in a civil partnership is immaterial for the purposes of relocation of the child. The important factor is whether the parent seeking to prevent the relocation has parental responsibility.

Custody and access - more properly called “Child Arrangements” - can be emotionally fraught litigation, especially where one party is threatening the other with the prospect of denying them time with the child. The court will always look at child centric outcomes, with the welfare of the child always being paramount. The starting point will always be that the child should spend time with both parents, except in very unusual circumstances.

Women are born with a finite number of eggs that decrease in quantity and quality with age, which can make it difficult to conceive in later years. Egg freezing can help a woman try to preserve her fertility, however, it does not guarantee a baby, and it can create complex legal issues. If you are considering this route, expert legal advice an important safeguard in the fertility treatment process.

Flexible working requests are often made by working mothers returning to work after a period of maternity leave. An employer should be open minded to this possibility and give any such request reasonable consideration. If you feel that your employer has not done this or is putting reasons forward about why the arrangement would not work which are not justifiable, we can explore with you whether this amounts to discrimination on grounds of sex.

Specialist fertility, parenting, and family law advice can help you in a number of ways, including managing and mitigating the legal risks and issues involved, helping you to understand what would happen legally and practically if family life doesn’t go to plan, and legally restructuring arrangements for your family following relationship breakdown or a change in circumstances.

Surrogacy raises complex questions about British nationality and immigration law. UK immigration law applies to those who are resident in the UK, regardless of whether they are British citizens, EEA nationals or permanently resident in the UK. There are various ways a surrogate born child can obtain British nationality and a British passport to include: by birth, by descent, registration as a British citizen, upon the grant of a parental order in certain circumstances.

Under UK Surrogacy law, legal parenthood and parental responsibility for a surrogate born child initially fall on to the surrogate and her spouse. As an intended parent, you must therefore apply for a parental order to reassign this legal status from the surrogate and her spouse to yourself and to extinguish all of the legal status of the surrogate and spouse. This is the bespoke legal solution for surrogacy in the UK.

Fertility add-ons are treatments offered by UK fertility clinics claiming to boost the chances of having a successful pregnancy or baby. They are optional extras that are offered on top of normal fertility treatment and usually at an additional cost. Add-ons are highly controversial because, despite being emerging techniques with little or no proven evidence of success, the use of them in clinical practice has increased exponentially. These can range from £50 for a single screening blood test to as much as £8,000 for egg freezing packages.

Whether the child you have adopted from abroad will be recognised as legally yours in the UK depends on various factors. For example, if you adopt a child from a country that is a signatory to the Hague Convention 1993 through a Convention Adoption, then that adoption will be recognised in all 76 Hague Convention countries. An adoption that is classed as an ‘overseas’ adoption, and recognised as a full adoption in the UK may be registered in the Adopted Children Register.

Whether it is due to a downturn in your business, ill-health or retirement, you might find that the maintenance payments are taking a disproportionate amount of your income. If that is the case, you can ask the court for a downward variation of the child maintenance which you pay.

Sometimes a wealthy parent can be joined to divorce proceedings, for example if they have a history of making large payments to their child, or if they are likely to be the one who meets the order.

If this happens to you, you will want to protect your wealth and minimise the amount you might have to pay to your child’s spouse. The involvement of third parties is very fact specific, but as experienced family lawyers, Vardags will help you minimise the cost of your involvement.

If your ex opposes your plan to move abroad with your children, there are numerous strategies that can be deployed to overcome their opposition.

While the court will be unable to stop you from relocating, it’s primary concern will be whether it is in your children’s best interests to do so, and whether there is an appropriate strategy in place for the children to maintain regular contact with the other parent.

If you are named as the person that a child lives with under a child arrangements order you may take your children on holiday abroad for up to 28 days without requiring permission from your ex. However, if there is no order in place or you wish to take your child out of the country for longer, you will require their written consent.

There is no international harmonisation of law, policy and practice. Some countries will not provide fertility treatment or surrogacy to same-sex couples and single women. Some countries do not allow fertility treatment with donor eggs or sperm. Furthermore, law and policy on surrogacy differs widely, with some jurisdictions prohibiting it whilst others enable it on a commercial or altruistic basis.

If you have an international lifestyle, being able to move around freely with your adopted child will be a high priority. Whether you have legal parental status internationally will depend on whether the adoption order you hold is recognisable in the countries you will reside in.

With our international expertise we can offer you specialist legal advice as to the potential issues you may face in different jurisdictions, and how to overcome them. As many of our clients have international lifestyles, we experienced at dealing with the legal complexities arising from the application of UK law internationally.

There are no international agreements governing surrogacy arrangements. This creates international conflicts of law and a legal patchwork effect around the world which can be compounded when intended parents and families formed through surrogacy have an international lifestyle or multi-jurisdictional aspects to their personal and/or professional situations.

English law applies its own law on surrogacy and does not automatically recognize foreign parentage orders or foreign birth certificates naming intended parents as the parents of their surrogate born children. This can make a surrogate born child ‘stateless and parentless’ without recognised legal parents and status in a country.

When you begin divorce proceedings, it is natural to worry about how your spouse might react. From the outset of proceedings, they are under a duty to maintain the status quo – including giving you the same access to money to meet your day-to-day expenses.

It is not uncommon for spouses to want to relocate when the marriage is ending. As a newly-single parent you may need to move closer to your work or nearer to the support of your family.

If you want to move your children abroad, and the other parent does not agree, you will need the permission of the court, so called “leave to remove”.

Whilst there are perfectly innocent reasons why your ex might not yet have returned with your children from Britain, it could also be a real cause for concern. In the first instance, it will be necessary to contact your ex, the hotel or the last place they were known to be and any family or friends who might know of their whereabouts.

If you fear violence or are subject to harassment the court can and will protect you, even after your divorce. For victims of domestic abuse (be it physical, verbal or emotional harm) the court can make non-molestation orders and occupation orders each giving you comprehensive legal protection.

Non-molestation orders (“non-mols”) are designed to protect your from harassment. Normally, they will prevent your ex-partner from harassing you and threatening you with violence. Sometimes they will bar them from contacting you directly and from going near you.

If you fear violence or are subject to violence or abuse, the court can and will protect you. For victims of domestic abuse (be it physical, verbal, or emotional harm) the court can make two types of order – “non-molestation” orders and “occupation” orders each giving you comprehensive legal protection. Non-molestation orders are supported by criminal sanctions. Breaking one is a criminal offence, and your partner can be arrested immediately if they breach the terms, even if they have committed no other crime. These orders are available whether you have been married to your ex-partner or not.

If you have moved abroad with your children without your ex’s consent, you could be at risk of being accused of child abduction, which is both a criminal and civil offence. There are serious criminal proceedings that could involve you being extradited to be brought before the criminal court of England and Wales.

However, the seriousness of these consequences can be mitigated if you take swift action to contact your ex and resolve the situation. Whatever your reasons for taking your child abroad, the faster you act the less likely the situation will result in onerous orders against you.

If your children live with your ex under a child arrangements order, then your ex may take your children out of England and Wales for up to 28 days without your consent. Where there is no child arrangements order in force, or where your ex wishes to take your child on holiday for longer than a month, they will require your written consent or they will have to obtain permission from the court.

Often couples try to make child arrangements work between themselves, without recourse to the courts. Sadly, this does not always happen successfully, with the resident parent preventing the children from seeing their other parent or limiting contact. If this has happened to you, Vardags can help.

As experienced family lawyers, Vardags can help you establish a regular system of contact with your children either through negotiating with your ex-partner or by applying to the court.

When a relationship with a parent falls into difficulties or dispute it can create complex legal issues about current and future arrangements for a child, particularly following assisted conception, donor conception, and surrogacy. This can include problems surrounding a child’s legal identity, legal status of the parents and child, acquisition and exercise of parental responsibility for the child, financial provision for the child, and arrangements for the day-to-day care of the child.

We can provide sensitive and specialist legal advice on resolving a family and fertility law issue or dispute with a parent, and arrangements for the care and upbringing of a child including child arrangements order, specific issue order, prohibited steps order, special guardianship, wardship, and adoption.

Relationships between adoptive parents and birth parents can vary. It is important to appreciate what each party is looking for in that relationship: whether it ends when the adoption is finalised, whether it continues through the child’s life, or perhaps neither party wishes for a relationship at all.

Should the relationship become difficult it may be worth considering setting out in writing the expectations of each party. This will help to establish how matters are to progress and reminds each party of their reasons for entering into the adoption.

In the event that the relationship deteriorates significantly, it is essential to seek the assistance of a third party.

If you are currently making child support payments, this obligation will continue even after your ex moves abroad with your children. Child support will continue to be enforceable in the courts of England and Wales and in over 100 countries with reciprocal arrangements.

Surrogacy is a legal but restricted practice in the UK. Surrogacy contracts are not legally enforceable in the UK and arrangements are based on trust and goodwill. Some foreign countries ban surrogacy and others permit it on a commercial basis with legally enforceable surrogacy contracts. The legal issues and process differ depending upon whether you enter into an altruistic UK surrogacy or a commercial surrogacy overseas.

We can discuss options with you and provide sensitive, experienced and bespoke legal advice and assistance on family building law advice for those considering or embarking upon a surrogacy arrangement with assisted conception in the UK or abroad. We can also advise on how to navigate a safe path home after the bird of a surrogate child overseas, how to apply for a parental order for a surrogacy born child, and what to do in the absence of a parental order.

There are a number of ways to donate eggs including: to a donor egg bank, to a female relative, friend, contact or as a straight surrogate (who donates her own egg as well as carries the pregnancy). We know that, as an egg donor, you are entering into an intricate and emotional situation. In a number of cases there are added layers of complexity, for example, where you are a known donor, engaging in an egg-swapping arrangement as a same-sex couple, or where there is an inter-family donation.

The law surrounding sperm donation is complex in the UK and can apply differently depending on a number of different factors, such as whether the woman who is conceiving is single, married, or in a civil partnership at the point of conception, whether conception takes place artificially or via sexual intercourse, whether conception takes place at a UK clinic or by private arrangement, who is named on the child’s birth certificate, and whether as a donor you will have an established relationship with the child.

Conception with donor eggs creates a range of medical, legal, emotional, financial and practical issues which require careful consideration. Specialist legal advice is an important safeguard in the fertility treatment and family building process. We can provide bespoke and comprehensive legal advice on all egg donation law, in the UK and internationally, including where your personal circumstances are complicated (including egg swapping as a same-sex couple, relationship difficulties or breakdown, change of circumstances and international aspects). We can also prepare a ‘family proof’ will following egg donation.

Donor sperm can be used to conceive in various ways, including at a UK fertility clinic, by private arrangement or at a fertility clinic overseas.

The law is complex and can apply differently depending upon your relationship status (whether you are single, married or in a civil partnership at the point of conception), how you conceive (artificial inception or sexual intercourse), where you conceive (at a clinic or at home), and who is named on the child’s birth certificate.

Adopting a child gives the adoptive parents the full rights and responsibilities of a birth parent. As such, in the event of a divorce, proceedings in relation to the child will be the same as those concerning care arrangements for biological children.
As adoptive parents, you will need to agree with whom the child shall live and contact arrangements. All decisions regarding the child’s health, education and welfare will need to be made jointly.

Posthumous conception is legal in the UK, but it is highly complex and needs to be dealt with carefully. There are stringent legal requirements governing the procurement, storage and use of eggs, sperm and embryos following death, especially with regards to consent.

English law expects you to have secured written, signed consent for the storage and use of eggs, sperm, and embryos after death. Ideally, you should proactively complete a series of consent forms that are available at all UK fertility clinics because consent cannot usually be obtained retrospectively after death.