‘Unjust Adoption Rise’

Read this article the other day on the BBC website. It includes:‘Critics of “forced adoptions” say social workers are rushing cases to hit the government’s adoption targets.’ [who are the critics?] ‘Campaigners, including Justice for Families, also claim the secrecy of the family courts is stopping parents properly challenging adoptions.’ [Justice for Famillies and who else?] [...]

let the discussion commence – or be postponed at any rate…

I seem to have generated a certain amount of interest from supporters of F4J and related organisations who have adopted a scattergun approach to commenting on various of the entries in this blog. It’s quite overtaken my bank holiday weekend, but I suppose its self inflicted – some people can’t resist the bait (myself included). [...]

Badly Behaved Barrister

NB Update here  Initially I read the article in Today’s Observer about Bruce Hyman with little more than a prurient interest in trying to work out if I knew him (the bar is a small world, but in fact I don’t know him). But in fact, it’s a lot more serious and concerning than the headline suggested. [...]

No Maintenance – No Holidays

What an excellent idea! In the US if you have arrears of more than $2,500 of child support you can’t get a passport until you pay up. I bet it would work even better in the UK where a far higher percentage of people actually travel abroad. The majority of American’s would be unfazed by [...]

Flexible Working – Flexible for whom?

The TUC point out what ought to be blindingly obvious, namely that John Redwoods proposals require a change in European Law (or even leaving the EU), and are incompatible with the noises Cameron is making about flexible working and family friendly policies, and would have a serious knock on effect on the rights of workers. It’s [...]

who’s the oldest daddy?

Today’s Guardian reports that ‘a 90 year old Indian farmer has had his 21st child, making him the oldest living father in the world’. I’m pretty sure that many of the 95 year old men living up and down the country are also fathers. I’m therefore betting my pocket money that a correction will appear in [...]

should i hire a private eye?

maybe, maybe not. People seem to think its all a necessary part of divorce or that a private detective will put them at an advantage in the court process. But this is not always so. There are three reasons why you might want to hire a private detective to nose around your spouse’s affairs: to find out [...]

what to expect at court

For many people going to court to sort out a divorce or separation or a dispute about children can be daunting. Often people involved in a court case have never been to court before at all, and all they have to go on is what they’ve seen on the telly or been told by friends. [...]

Open Justice – Closed Forum

I’m open minded. I went to browse the fathers4justice website today to see what they had to say (be warned the quicktime on this site hangs up my browser, it may do likewise to yours). I was confronted at the outset with the singularly unfortunate quote ‘A Verbal Machinegun’. An epithet to be proud of [...]

LSC find another costs saving…

Thats twice this week a client has been refused funding for representation as respondent to a prohibited steps order application, and a third on the horizon (my diary seems to be full of PSO’s). This must be the new thing they are refusing in order to save costs. It’s been common practice to refuse funding [...]