Barrister prohibited from acting in children case The High Court has dismissed an appeal by a father involved in proceedings concerning arrangements for his daughter, against an order prohibiting his barrister from accepting further instructions from him in those proceedings.  The court had made the order because of acrimony between the barrister and the mother, […]

Bill introduced to ban marriage for under-18s An MP has introduced a Private Members’ Bill calling for the minimum age of marriage to be changed to 18, with no exceptions.  Currently the legal minimum age of marriage is 16, but children aged under 18 must have parental consent. Pauline Latham, Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire, […]

Child Maintenance Service statistics The Department for Work and Pensions (‘DWP’) has published the latest statistics for the Child Maintenance Service (‘CMS’), for the quarter to June 2020. The statistics show that there are now 741,200 children covered by CMS arrangements, 474,700 through Direct Pay arrangements (where the CMS calculates the amount of maintenance to […]

Lockdown surge in male domestic abuse victims Male domestic abuse charities have reported a rise of up to 60% in men seeking their help during the lockdown.  Respect, the helpline for male victims of domestic abuse, said it had received 13,812 calls and emails between April and July in lockdown, compared to 8,648 in the […]

Prince Family Law has grown in size and reputation to become one of the leading specialist Family Law Practices in South Yorkshire and the East Midlands. We are looking to further expand both our Chesterfield and Sheffield offices and have vacancies for two Solicitors / Legal Executives to join our highly experienced legal team. This […]

Children’s Commissioner warning over vulnerable children Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has warned that vulnerable children who require urgent support will “slip out of view” because of the impact of coronavirus. Ms Longfield said: “After the school six-week holidays it’s always the case that there are spikes in referrals to social services for […]

A family court judge has allowed two children to return to their family, after the local authority had had them removed, due to concerns about the physical chastisement of one of the children. The two children, a five-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl, lived with their mother and her partner, the father of the younger […]

Court authorises withdrawal of child’s medical treatment The High Court has granted an application by Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust for a declaration that withdrawing intensive care from a 12-year-old boy with brain injuries is in his best interests. The boy suffered a “profound, severe neurological injury” in April, after he was found […]

A High Court judge has emphasised the duty upon parties to financial remedy proceedings on divorce to negotiate reasonably, and has warned of the costs consequences if they fail to do so. Giving judgment in a case in which the wife sought two-thirds of the assets and an order that the husband pay her costs […]

People representing themselves in court will receive enhanced legal support following £3.1 million in additional funding, the Ministry of Justice has announced. In a joint initiative with the Access to Justice Foundation, funding will be provided to not for profit organisations across the country to provide free legal support – ensuring better advice and clear […]