Family Law

The Court of Appeal has held that section 47 of the Family Law Act 1995 does not confer a jurisdiction on a court to direct the preparation of a psychologists’ report concerning the welfare of a child where no specific relief is sought relating to child welfare. The legislation had received li

The High Court has dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) regarding a €232,000 legal bill charged by a solicitor in family law proceedings. The appellant had claimed that the fees were excessive and that she had expected the fees to be approxima

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal which stemmed from a child residence order application request brought by a father in a long series of litigation with the child’s mother. The court refused the appeal, finding that it had been brought for improper purposes and w

Parental alienation is a "highly controversial" concept and the use of the term in Irish legal settings should be treated with serious caution, researchers have said. Though the term is being used increasingly often by Irish judges, they "do not appear to use an agreed definition of [parental aliena

Claire Edgar of Belfast-based Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors examines a recent Northern Ireland court ruling on non-molestation order applications. The High Court of Northern Ireland recently handed down judgment in the judicial review case of JR231. The judgment explores the legal test to be app

The Supreme Court has ruled that a child born in the UK via a surrogacy arrangement was not entitled to Irish citizenship based on his non-biological father’s Irish citizenship. The parents were a same-sex married couple and had obtained a parental order in England, which was not available in

A Deputy Judge of the High Court of England and Wales has granted permission for a Ukrainian father to withdraw an application under the Hague Convention of 1980 under which he sought the return of his two children to Kyiv. Applicant NW had remained in Ukraine under the requirements of martial law w

The High Court has set aside the grant of leave to bring judicial review proceedings after the applicant had provided a “grossly misleading” account of his complaint against a Circuit Court judge. The applicant had issued the proceedings after the Circuit Court had made certain orders in

Emergency legislation is needed to prevent thousands of divorcees from losing hundreds of thousands of euros in payments as a result of changes to EU law, the Law Society of Ireland has said. The Law Society today said it has alerted the Pensions Authority and practitioners to the serious effect of

Ireland is an "outlier in Europe" because of its failure to give legal recognition to prenuptial agreements, a lawyer and government minister has said. Josepha Madigan, a qualified solicitor and minister of state for special education, told The Sunday Times that the law should be changed to recognis

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has upheld a decision permitting evidence of sexual assault in the context of a family court application where the same evidence was rejected as hearsay in a criminal trial. The facts of this case are explicit and reader discretion is advised.

Paul C McCarthy SC has been admitted to the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL) as a Fellow. The prestigious organisation is a worldwide association of practising lawyers recognised by their peers as the most experienced and skilled family law specialists in their respective countries.

The government has ordered a review into waiting times for domestic violence orders in the District Court amid claims that vulnerable people are waiting as long as 16 weeks in parts of the State. Simon Harris confirmed in the Dáil that he had asked the Courts Service to prepare a report on th

Restrictions on the disclosure of evidence heard in-camera are creating an inadvertent barrier to complaints about the conduct of judges in family law cases, the Judicial Council has said.

The High Court has determined that a mother had wrongfully removed her two children to Ireland and ordered that they should be returned to Sweden under the Hague Convention. The eldest child claimed that she would self-harm if she was returned to Sweden but the court held that there were not strong