Family Law

A joint action plan aimed at helping to resolve parental conflict over children outside of an adversarial court environment has been published by Northern Ireland's justice and health ministers. The Private Family Law Early Resolution Action Plan aims to change the way parental disputes are approach

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal against a spousal maintenance order made in the High Court, which provided only €800 per month to the former wife of a farmer and expired after four years. The court considered section 16 of the Family Law Act 1995 and held that the maintenance order fa

A young child has been returned to his parents in England despite the objections of his aunt and uncle. The child had previously been transferred to their care in Ireland for a temporary period to allow his mother to overcome alcohol addiction. However, the aunt and uncle decided that it was in the

Comyn Kelleher Tobin (CKT) has sponsored a new scholarship supporting one postgraduate student on the LLM Children's Rights and Family Law at UCC School of Law. To apply for the Comyn Kelleher Tobin Scholarship, students must secure a minimum grade of 2.1 in an approved primary degree or equivalent,

Members of the public have been invited to share their experiences with the family justice system in a new public consultation. The consultation, running until 11 June 2021, will inform the oversight group which has been tasked with driving the modernisation of family justice in Ireland, including t

Family lawyers have welcomed moves towards clearing the backlog of judicial separation and divorce cases in Dublin. Dublin County Registrar Rita Considine will fix hearing dates for cases today, tomorrow and Friday.

Family lawyer Claire Edgar has welcomed an English court ruling emphasising the importance of domestic abuse training for the judiciary. The Court of Appeal in London last month handed down judgment in four appeals dealing with how allegations of domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour

Ireland has been left with "third world infrastructure" in the family courts and urgent investment is needed to prevent children and vulnerable people from paying the price, the Law Society of Ireland has said. Helen Coughlan, chair of the Law Society's family and child law committee, said the gener

An increasing number of cases involving allegations of parental alienation are coming before the Northern Ireland courts, a family lawyer has warned. Claire Edgar, family law partner at Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors, shared her experience as a practitioner at an online event organised by the Sou

Plans to modernise the civil and family justice system over the next year have been set out by Justice Minister Naomi Long. Speaking in Stormont this morning, Mrs Long said she would take forward changes before the next election to make the civil and family justice system "more accessible for citize

Family lawyers are experiencing a substantial increase in enquiries involving allegations of domestic violence and coercive control, comparable to the increase during the first Covid-19 lockdown, Irish Legal News has learned. Domestic violence charity Safe Ireland, which represents 39 front-line org

Ministers have launched a public consultation on the current treatment of child maintenance payments and the obligations of liable relatives within the social protection system. The six-week consultation launched by Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys yesterday will also seek view on whethe

Family lawyers have welcomed the commencement of remote family court hearings this week. Mr Justice John Jordan, the judge in charge of the family list of the High Court, has published a notice setting out the court's approach to remote hearings from yesterday.

A man held up a judge, a barrister and his estranged wife with a fake pistol and a hoax pipe bomb during a “terrifying” siege in a Dublin court, his sentence hearing has been told. During a hearing in December 2018, Edmund Dunican, 47, told the court he had a “problem” with a

Family lawyers have paid tribute to Fermanagh social worker Nuala McLaughlin, who died from Covid-19 late last year. Originally from Tyrone, Ms McLaughlin was the principal social worker at the Western Health and Social Care Trust (WHSCT). She was just 43 years old when she passed away at the end of