Blog
Expanded AML remit for the FCA: a good or bad thing?
Colette Best
5 May 2016
Parenting after separation – co-parenting, parallel parenting and ways to make it work
If you have recently separated and are considering how you and your former partner will raise your children, you will no doubt have looked online and come across a wealth of information on the benefits of “co-parenting”. Co-parenting is, in its simplest definition, sharing the duties of raising a child. In reality, this usually means that the following dynamics exist between the parents: co-operation, communication, compromise and consistency, along with a strong ethos that the child’s needs should be placed before the parents’. Effective co-parenting is usually not immediate and it can take many years of hard work to create. However, many are willing to put in this effort as co-parenting is clearly portrayed as the “gold standard” of post-separation parenting.
But is co-parenting achievable in every situation?
26 April 2016
Moving abroad with children - rocking the legal ‘see-saw’ of habitual residence
Sadly, disputes regarding the international movement of children are common in the English courts, as a result of the increasingly international dynamic of families who move from country to country with their children. Moving a child to another country without the approval of the other parent or permission from a court can have serious legal implications and child abduction proceedings may become inevitable.
19 April 2016
IVF clinic mistakes create legal lacuna for children - beware the traps of the UK’s complex legal parenthood rules
We have recently seen several reported cases dealing with the legal fall out when mistakes are made by some IVF clinics in relation to consent forms, leaving a number of parents in the unhappy position where they are not the legal parents of their children. The Judge in the case of The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (A & Ors) [2015] EWHC 2602 (“Re A”) described the situation as “alarming and shocking”, making clear that legal parentage is “a question of the most fundamental gravity and importance”. We see similar consequences for parents in surrogacy cases where the commissioning parents are not the legal parents of a child born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, despite genetic connections.
7 April 2016
The death of a child without a will — is it time to change the law?
As a Court of Protection practitioner acting for many clients with catastrophic injuries it is a sad but unavoidable fact that I will occasionally receive a call advising me of the unexpected death of a client. When this has happened it affects me deeply, particularly when it involves a child, so I can only imagine what my client’s family is going through. I like to develop strong relationships with my clients based not just on our professional dealings but also in a personal capacity. The decisions I take can have a significant impact on their lives and I believe it makes me a better lawyer if I take the time to know my client on a personal level. As a result, you feel more keenly the loss of a client you have come to know well over a long period of time.
A slightly amended version of this blog appeared on The Times in April 2016.
23 March 2016
The challenges with family law agreements for international couples
Increasingly, I find myself asked by one member of an international couple to draft an agreement which I have to advise them will be difficult to uphold, especially across international borders.
The vast majority of my clients have international connections, whether by nationality, residence, or substantial assets outside England. While there is a substantial amount of international family law to help such couples, there are huge gaps. Many of the gaps involve significant issues which clients want advice on every day.
This article was first published in WealthBriefing in March 2016.