Sharland and Gohil win appeals in the Supreme Court

Sharland and Gohil win appeals in the Supreme Court

Posted by on Oct 20, 2015 in News

The win appeals of Alison Sharland and Varsha Gohil have been unanimously allowed by the Supreme Court demonstrating the need for full and frank disclosure from all parties involved.

Regarding Sharland, Lady Hale stated that the case was one of fraud. It was clear that the judge would not have made the consent order would not have been for Mr Sharland’s fraud, and therefore it should be set aside.

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49% of kinship carers have to give up work to care for the kin child

49% of kinship carers have to give up work to care for the kin child

Posted by on Oct 19, 2015 in News

According to a report published by The Family Rights Group entitled “Doing the right thing: A report on the experiences of kinship cares”, 49% of kinship carers have to give up work permanently in order to be able to care for the kin child and 18% had to leave work temporarily.

The report also found that 22% of carers’ had 3 or more children aged 18 or under in their household. This means that the Government’s proposed limit on child tax credits will particularly affect kinship carers.

In addition to this, 80% of kinship carers confessed to not knowing enough about the legal options available when they took on the child.

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The law on press reporting of ancillary relief proceedings is ‘a mess’ according to Mostyn J.

The law on press reporting of ancillary relief proceedings is ‘a mess’ according to Mostyn J.

Posted by on Oct 9, 2015 in News

Mostyn J has authorised NGN Ltd in Appleton & Gallagher v News Group Newspapers and PA [2015] EWHC 2689 (Fam) to appeal to the Court of Appeal in order to resolve the “unhappy divergence of judicial approach” to privacy and restrictions to reporting in ancillary relief cases and described the law concerning the ability of the press to report such proceedings as ‘a mess’

Mostyn J went on to say that “information compulsorily extracted by one party from the other is subject to an implied undertaking that it will not be used for any purpose other than the proceedings”.  Therefore a party telling the press what the other party had said in the witness box would be considered in contempt of court, as would a third party who published what had been said.

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Research stating that judges need more feedback on their work is welcomed by President of the Family Division

Research stating that judges need more feedback on their work is welcomed by President of the Family Division

Posted by on Oct 8, 2015 in News

According to a research article by Professor Judith Masson of Bristol University – entitled “Developing judgement: the role of Feedback for Judges in the Family Court” – giving judges feedback on their work could help to improve the way in which they handle cases about children’s care.

The report states that the role of a judge is ‘a very lonely job’ as most judges in the family courts must decide case on their own and receive little or no feedback unlike other professionals.

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