October 2014 #140 – Law Journals

Capacity: Maturity test

In the first of a two-part analysis, Debbie Stringer examines how the courts approach Gillick competence in relation to a child’s capacity ‘Where a court has to make a decision where the rights of the child and the rights of the parents conflict, the child’s rights must be the paramount consideration.’ In two recent judgments …

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Children: Children’s voices

Che Meakins sets out the courts’ approach to children’s evidence and when a child should be joined as a party to proceedings ‘The court must weigh the advantage that a child’s evidence may have in determining the truth against the harm that the giving of evidence might do that child or any other child.’ In …

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Schedule 1: Competing interests

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Julia Brown reports on jurisdictional aspects of Schedule 1 proceedings and the decision in O v P [2014] ‘As with any other family proceedings the court must first of all be convinced that it has jurisdiction to deal with a Schedule 1 application.’ Family life in 2014 is far different from that in the 1970s …

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Private Children: Much ado about nothing?

Helen Cort highlights changes introduced by the Child Arrangements Programme and the likely impact on both practitioners and parties ‘The intention is to send a message to the parents that they each have a valuable role to play in their child’s life and to encourage separated parents to adopt less rigid positions.’ Child arrangements orders …

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Business Assets: Future proofing

Graeme Fraser and Stephen Morrall consider the benefits of combining corporate and family law strategic advice when dealing with business assets on divorce ‘It is clear that, where a family has shared interests in a family company, the members should strive to find a common agreement to regulate those interests in as practical and tax-efficient …

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International Focus: Finding the fairness

Dr Dianne Millen explores how cohabitation law introduced in 2006 in Scotland is working in practice ‘The Supreme Court in Gow emphasised the non-commercial nature of cohabiting relationships, where people are prepared to make sacrifices of all kinds for a relationship without demanding some quasi-contractual form of financial recompense.’ Eight years after the Family Law …

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Appeals: Limited options

Katie Lowe looks at the revised procedure for appeals and practice points for practitioners ‘The court is bound by the interpretation given to the phrase “real prospect of success”, namely that a party must show a realistic, rather than fanciful, prospect of success.’ Cases that involve advising on appeal are generally few and far between. …

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