Putting equal parenting on the agenda
We believe family courts should adopt the principle that, following divorce or separation of parents, there is a presumption that both parents will have reasonable contact with their children unless there is a good reason otherwise.
Clearly there is a big difference between one case in which the child and his resident mother, for instance, live a mile away from the non-resident father, and another case in which they live 300 miles away. Because of these differences of circumstances, the exact definition of reasonable contact will vary between cases.
We attach …
After separation, it appears all too easy for a resident parent to go and live overseas and so prevent the other parent seeing their child again.
The case-law governing “leave to remove” as it is called is a 2001 case, Payne v Payne. Here is the key principle which it established:
“refusing the primary carer’s reasonable proposals for the relocation of her family life is likely to impact detrimentally on the welfare of her dependent children. Therefore her application to relocate will be granted unless the court concludes that it is incompatible …
75% of child abusers were alienated from one of their parents.
This disturbing consequence of parental alienation has come to light in recent research by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
The Institute found that “Almost three in every four offenders had either no contact or minimal contact with at least one biological parent” (Australian Institute of Criminology Intrafamilial adolescent Sex Offenders: Psychological Profile and Treatment, Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice, no. 375, June 2009. p.2).
When someone acts in person without a solicitor, occasionally a court will order that his costs be paid by the other party. He is then able to charge for the time he has spent on the case at £9.24 per hour. This is generally know as the LIP or Litigant in Person rate.
It has remained fixed at £9.24 an hour for 15 years and has not increased with inflation. Now, the Jackson Review of Costs in Civil Proceedings has recommended that the rate should increase to £20 per hour.
The final …
In a heated exchange at the Bar Conference this week end, the Chairman of the Bar Standards Board, Baroness Ruth Deech, told the Legal Services Commission Chairman, Bill Callaghan, that he totally misunderstood why Legal Aid costs in Family Law had risen. The reason, she said, is quite simply because “there is so much more family breakdown.”
See the article
When couples split, “there should be a default mechanism for shared responsibility unless there is a welfare reason not to” said Tim Loughton, speaking at a Tory Conference fringe meeting last week.
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