Family Law

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

Northern Ireland’s High Court has determined that it is in the best interests of a child to be relocated to Poland, where he has family ties and where his mother’s new husband is based. The court noted the emotional impact that refusing the application could have on the mother and, in tu

New research into Ireland's family law system has found that the voices of infants and very young children are "starkly absent" from decision-making. The first-of-its-kind research was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork and i

The Law Society of Ireland has urged the government to commit the "necessary resources" to ensure that planned reforms to the family courts system can be put into practice. The long-awaited Family Courts Bill 2022, which will provide for the establishment of a Family Court as divisions within the ex

Plans to give the District Court jurisdiction over a wide range of family law matters worth up to €1 million are "very likely to cause chaos in the District Court", a family lawyer has warned. Keith Walsh, a prominent family law solicitor in Dublin, told Irish Legal News that changes to the jur

Long-awaited reforms to Ireland's family courts have reached an "important milestone" with the publication of the first National Family Justice Strategy and the impending publication of the Family Court Bill, the justice minister has said. Helen McEntee yesterday confirmed that she had received appr

Northern Ireland’s High Court has rejected an appeal against a contact order where the applicant was refusing to accept her son’s guilt in relation to the death of a child in his care. The court found that the applicant was prioritising her relationship with her son over her relationship

The High Court has refused an application by a woman for a declaration that she was a qualified cohabitant of a deceased man who was married to another woman. The woman claimed to have been in a committed, exclusive relationship with the man for several years and therefore sought orders for property

Belfast lawyer Claire Edgar has delivered a talk on domestic abuse to lawyers at the Jersey International Family Law Conference 2022. Ms Edgar, family law partner at Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors, spoke on domestic abuse in the context of divorce and and ancillary relief proceedings to legal pro

The High Court has ruled that the Dublin Circuit Court was wrong to refuse to hear a divorce application on the basis that the husband, a solicitor, did not carry on his profession in the county. The couple lived outside Dublin and the husband was based in the south-west of the State. As such, the m

Callan Tansey Solicitors LLP has announced the appointment of Orlagh Sharkey as partner and head of the firm's family law department. Ms Sharkey has extensive experience in all areas of family law, including negotiating agreements on childcare, financial and property issues arising from divorce and

The High Court has ruled that a child must be returned to Poland after she was taken to Ireland by her mother in August 2021. The father had made an application under the Child Abduction Regulations, claiming that he had no knowledge that his child had been removed from Poland. Delivering judgment i

Midlands firm J.D. Scanlon & Co has announced the appointment of Hilary Cahalan as a solicitor. The general practice law firm now employs eight solicitors and a total of 20 staff.