Cases Archive

Appeal by a mother against an order that her daughter be returned to Lithuania. Appeal dismissed.

High Court declarations of parentage made in respect of father whose child was conceived using donated sperm, in circumstances where he had signed a consent form, which the fertility clinic had lost.

Schedule 1 case where the mother made an unmerited appplication to vary an order for periodical payments and subsequently appealed, again without merit. Mother ordered to pay a contribution towards the father’s costs.

Change of residence in Children Act 1989 private law proceedings.

Successful appeal considering (1) the interplay between public law and private law proceedings where the State seeks to intervene in the placement of a child; (2) a reconsideration of the balancing exercise where the mother is able to provide “good enough” care but the grandmother is able to provide better care; and (3) the balancing exercise for purposeful delay for further assessment of a parent.

Father’s successful appeal against findings made of sexual abuse of the child. Points of interest include the Guardian’s representatives’ role where the father is a litigant in person, and the unfair process followed by the Judge as well as the wrong balancing exercise being conducted.

Contact application, ongoing for four years, where the father’s public funding had been terminated. The father was a convicted sex offender. The President, Sir James Munby, adjourned the case, despite submissions made to dismiss the father’s application summarily based on the weaknesses in the father’s case, and invited the Ministry of Justice to intervene in the proceedings, on the basis that the position regarding the father’s legal aid prevented the Court from delivering a fair hearing on his application.