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In a case in which a man was named as a girl's father on her birth certificate but was subsequently discovered not to be her biological father, the High Court has ruled that the effect of a declaration of non-parentage was to render his acquisition of...

The courts are entitled to draw reasonable adverse inferences against a party who fails to engage in divorce proceedings. How this is approached in practice was illustrated by a recent Family Court ruling on a financial remedies application in which the...

Under Section 42(7) of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 , an adoption order may not be made unless the court is satisfied that sufficient opportunities to see the child with the adoptive parents in the home environment have been given to the adoption...

The High Court recently ruled on an application by the Lord Chancellor for declarations that the marriages of 79 couples no longer subsisted on the date of their final divorce orders, despite those divorce orders having been applied for a day too early. ...

The High Court has granted a man's application for a declaration that it was lawful for him to use an embryo created using his sperm and his late wife's eggs in treatment with a surrogate, despite his wife not having given written consent. The embryo had...

The Family Division of the High Court recently refused an application for a 13-year-old girl's summary return to the USA , in a decision in which the girl's own objections to returning were a key consideration. The girl's American mother and British father...

When couples are divorcing, mediation is strongly recommended in order to reduce the time and expense involved in court proceedings. This was amply illustrated in a recent case in which the Family Court refused a husband's application to strike out an...

When a child is born via a surrogacy arrangement, the legal parents are the surrogate mother and, if they have consented to the arrangement, her spouse or civil partner. The intended parents must apply for a parental order or adoption in order to become the...

The Court of Appeal has upheld a man's argument that the financial remedy order made on his divorce should have been set aside because the wife had given inaccurate evidence about an important asset. The couple had met in Singapore, where the wife was...

When a party fails to disclose assets in divorce proceedings, the courts are entitled to draw appropriate inferences from the non-disclosure. This was demonstrated in a recent case in which the Family Court described the husband's conduct of the...