HMCTS have confirmed that legal representatives will need to process divorce applications online using the digital service (rather than paper forms) from 13th September 2021. The exceptions to this, which should continue to be processed via the paper route, are:- • Civil Partnership• Judicial Separation• Nullity Machins Solicitors are already set up to use the
The Court of Appeal has set aside a court order that a girl should be returned to her mother rather than stay with foster parents. The girl was 18 months old and was referred to in court as X. Her mother had agreed to X being accommodated with foster parents when she was three days
The Court of Appeal has ruled that a judge was wrong to order that two children should be returned to their father, who the mother claimed had been abusive. The mother was English, and the father was American. They married in 2015 and lived in England with the mother’s daughter from a previous relationship. In
Last week Channel 4 Dispatches’ aired “Torn Apart: Family Courts Uncovered”. The programme reported on a voluntary survey as well as conversations with a number of families who have used the family court system and professionals working within it. Among the topics discussed were: Parental Alienation: This is a situation in which one parent uses
A father has been told that he cannot invoke the Hague Convention to have his children returned to Austria after their mother took them to live in England. The Family Court was told that the children were British citizens born in the UK in 2012 and 2019 and were aged nine and two. The parents
Cohabiting couples are to qualify for bereavement payments if one of them dies leaving dependent children. Previously, a surviving parent could only claim the financial support if they had been married or in a civil partnership at the time of their spouse or civil partner’s death. Under plans being drawn up by the government, Widowed
The role of a grandparent in a child’s life is unique to every family situation but many grandparents play a significant role in a child’s upbringing. Yet these relationships are often overlooked or marginalised following a breakdown of the relationship between the parents of the child. The parents can be caught in their own conflict
A mother who wrongfully removed her two sons from their home after separating from their father has been ordered to return them to Lanzarote. The two boys, referred to only as X and Y, were three years and 18 months old, respectively. The father was Italian but had lived in Lanzarote since he was seven
The introduction of no-fault divorces, which was due to take place this autumn, has been postponed until next year. The courts minister Chris Philp made the announcement in response to a parliamentary question. He said the provisions of the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020 must be put back because not enough progress had been
The Divorce, Dissolution, and Separation Act 2020 brings the biggest shakeup to the UK’s divorce laws in over 50 years. After years of campaigning for the implementation of no fault divorce, the act officially received Royal Assent in June 2020. Since then couples seeking a divorce, and family law practitioners have waited patiently for news