Blog
Why can’t we read Prince Philip’s Will?
The Royal Family in modern times live very public lives. Core members seem to have been bred in captivity, like exotic fish in an open aquarium, some of whose waters are murkier than others, but almost all of which will sooner or later be publicly visible. But not...
Non-resident parents and lack of engagement from the Child Maintenance Service and the Secretary of State
This is a guest post by Kathryn Cassells. Kathryn is an associate solicitor at Vaitilingam Kay, specialising in family law including divorce, finances and private children law. Kathryn tweets as @MasonCassells Y v The Secretary of State for the Department of Work and...
Non-resident parents and lack of engagement from the Child Maintenance Service and the Secretary of State
This is a guest post by Kathryn Cassells. Kathryn is an associate solicitor at Vaitilingam Kay, specialising in family law including divorce, finances and private children law. Kathryn tweets as @MasonCassells Y v The Secretary of State for the Department of Work and...
Bell v Tavistock Court of Appeal Judgment: An Explainer
On 17 September 2021 the Court of Appeal handed down the awaited judgment in the case of Bell v Tavistock. The full written case report can be found here. We reported on the Divisional court’s decision at the end of last year, and on the Court of Appeal hearing which...
Children, Consent, and Covid Jabs
This is a guest post by Alex Tiseo (@TiseoAlex97 on twitter), a PhD student at the University of East Anglia who is researching minors' consent and refusal of medical treatment. The Background When the Government first announced its Covid vaccination programme, few...
Stumbling across a paradigm case – part 4 (a personal view)
PART 4 COMMENT This is the fourth and final part of a four part blog series. Part 1 is here, and links to parts 2 and 3. Reminder : To ensure that the child and family are not identified I am not allowed to reveal whether the child is a boy or a girl, but to make the...
Stumbling across a paradigm case – part 3 (how I did it)
PART 3 : HOW DID YOU DO IT? This is the third part of a four part blog series. Part 1 is here, and links to parts 2 and 4. Reminder : To ensure that the child and family are not identified I am not allowed to reveal whether the child is a boy or a girl, but to make...
Stumbling across a paradigm case – part 2 (the case itself)
PART 2 : THE CASE This is the second part of a four part blog series. Part 1 is here, and links to parts 3 and 4. A reminder: To ensure that the child and family are not identified I am not allowed to reveal whether the child is a boy or a girl, but to make the posts...
Stumbling across a paradigm case – the hardest legal blogging expedition so far…
PART 1 : INTRODUCTION This series of posts is about a case dealt with in the Family Court at Hull in August, in which a judge ordered a transfer of residence of a young child from the mother’s care into the father’s care, following long running proceedings and...
![When a case is described finely balanced, how important are the children’s expressed wishes and feelings? Dorset Council v M & Ors (Removal : Balance of Harm) [2021] EWFC B43](https://www.transparencyproject.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Screen-Shot-2019-10-04-at-10.06.58-1080x675.png)
When a case is described finely balanced, how important are the children’s expressed wishes and feelings? Dorset Council v M & Ors (Removal : Balance of Harm) [2021] EWFC B43
This is a post by Sophie Smith-Holland. Sophie is a family law barrister at St John’s Chambers, Bristol. She tweets as @SSmithHolland. In my last post I wrote about a case where the Judge disagreed with all the professionals and refused to approve a care plan of...