Divorce Survivor

Parental Alienation Awareness

2013-02-13T07:30:00.000Z

A week or so ago reports of a "new" Canadian case circulated on Facebook and fathers groups about a mother who lost custody for alienating a father along with criticism that the courts in the UK do not recognise Parental Alienation. This is in the run up to Parental Alienation Awareness Day in April. The case was reported by the Toronto Star here in 2009 and I can only assume it was meant the story had just come to the notice of fathers groups and parental alienation campaigners.

It isn't true that courts in the UK don't recognise Parental Alienation. There have been a number of cases where the courts have recognised PA when it has been supported by evidence from expert witnesses, but of of course children resist contact for may reasons and there is no general agreement yet about Parental Alienation. Nick Child, family therapist and retired psychiatrist summarises the current thinking about PA here.

Bedroom Tax Petition

2013-02-12T07:30:00.000Z

There is growing concern in Scotland over the introduction of the Bedroom Tax in April 2013 cutting the amount of benefit that tenants of working age can get if they are deemed to have a spare bedroom in their council or housing association home. According to the The Herald people are expected to find the extra by working, working more hours, taking in a lodger or to find smaller homes. However the DWP say there are not enough one bedroom homes and critics anticipate there will be a rise in people getting into debt eventually leading to evictions or renting in the private sector increasing benefit bills. This UK Government welfare reform will effect people like this women who is disabled and regularly provides a home to her mentally ill daughter. Also effected will be a number of separated parents who live on their own and have their children staying for overnight contact.

Solicitor Mike Dailly of the Govan Law Centre has raised a petition calling on the Scottish Parliament to amend the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 "to prevent social landlords from using rent arrears caused by under occupation housing benefit deductions in eviction actions, and instead requiring such under occupation arrears to be pursued as an ordinary debt." The petition is available here should anyone wish to sign.

Legal Aid Restrictions for Bar Reports

2013-01-31T08:00:00.000Z

Last week the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) announced new restrictions on legal aid for Bar Reports. A Bar Reporter is commissioned to investigate a child's circumstances and to report to Child Welfare Hearings. For reports after 18th February 2013 the cost payable to a Bar Reporter instructed to carry out these reports will be limited to £3000 (excluding VAT and outlays). The limit will not apply in privately funded cases.

Source SLAB Update

Scottish Research: Legal System May Favour Fathers

2013-01-30T07:30:00.000Z

According to The Herald a study by the Centre for Research into Families and Children at Edinburgh University shows 8% of children in contact disputes in family courts in Scotland are compelled to visit or stay with a parent who is alleged to have committed domestic abuse. The report by Dr Kirsteen Mackay shows rather than the system being biased against dads, the reverse may be true, with the system favouring fathers over mothers. The study, Hearing Children in Court Disputes Between Parents, calls for more specialised training for sheriffs, court reporters and solicitors in dealing with children.

The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships briefing is available here.

Happy Burns Night - Keep Nodding

2013-01-25T16:31:00.002Z

Newsround 4

2013-01-21T07:30:00.000Z

Lots of interesting news over the Christmas and New Year period.

Global approach to family law

The reform of family law is a constant source of debate in the UK, and in France it is very much the same situation. Article: Law Society Gazette.

Appointment of President of the Family Division

The Right Honourable Lord Justice Munby appointed as President of the Family Division. Story: Judiciary of England and Wales.

Family judges seek protection from parents in 'unsafe' courts

Dangerously inadequate security arrangements during family cases leave officials vulnerable to attack, say judges. Story: The Guardian.

UK in family breakdown 'epidemic'

The UK has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in the Western world with just two thirds of children living with both parents, according to research by a global development organisation. Story: The Independent.

A view from the litigant in person

"A few weeks ago, I got chatting to a woman in my local pub – let’s call her Susan – who is embroiled in a legal battle in the family courts" Blog: Law Society Gazette News.

Vive la différence?

Rhona Adams, Partner in the Family Law Team at Morton Fraser explores why Scots lawyers need to be alert to the differences in English law surrounding divorce cases. Blog Morton-Fraser

Young people wish for quicker family justice system

The family justice system should work faster to stop children and young people from suffering “trauma and stress”, according to a group of young people with family court system experience. Story: Children & Young People Now.

GPs in crossfire as separated parents seek access to children's records

Increasing numbers of family doctors seeking advice on whether they should give information to separated parents. Story: The Guardian.

Sharing Mum & Dad

How do parents share the bringing up of their children after they separate? Dispatches investigates the emotive subject of parental access and rights. The Call Kaye programme on BBC Scotland picked up on the subject the following morning (interview with Tim Lovejoy from 15:30 15/1/13).

Scottish property tycoon jailed in legal cash battle

Scots property dealer said to be worth £400 million has been jailed for six months after a High Court judge ruled he disobeyed orders to provide financial details to his estranged wife and was in contempt of court. Story: The Herald

Fast-track court for rape trial

The trial of five men accused over the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a bus in India is to be shifted to a special fast-track court. Story: The Herald

Law Society backs down over reforms to legal aid

The Law Society of Scotland is backing down on protests against legal aid reforms after weeks of court walkouts and a series of high-level meetings with the Justice Secretary. Story: The Herald

Children's tsar: 'Stop sending kids to jail'

Scotland's children's commissioner has called for offenders aged 16 and 17 to be kept out of prison, and the introduction of specialist youth courts to help prevent the creation of "career criminals". Story: The Herald

Auld Lang Syne

2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

Marie Campbell and Dave Francis originally recorded my preferred version of Robert Burns poem "Auld Lang Syne" in 1996. About 4 years ago Dave send me the link to You Tube. I'm ashamed to say I ignored his email as I'm not a great fan of Sex in the City and it was a few months later before I realised the song was featured in part of the soundtrack of the film. It's very different from the usual rendition and well worth a listen.

Happy New Year and all the best to everyone for the 2013.

The Hug Song

2012-12-25T10:29:00.000Z

Merry Christmas everyone and a virtual hug to anyone separated from their loved ones today.

The Children Desperate to Go Into Care

2012-12-24T00:01:00.001Z

Members of Holyrood's Education Committee are taking evidence for an ongoing inquiry into how decisions are made about when and whether children should be taken into care. Last week four MSP Education Committee members attended sessions to hear about young people's experiences before, during and after leaving state care. Although some of the 9 young people the MSPs met felt that the availability of more support for their parents beforehand may have prevented them having being placed in care 7 insisted they had been taken into care too late. Stephen Naysmith's full article "Revealed: The children desperate to go into care is in today's Herald.

An Engineer's Christmas

2012-12-22T07:30:00.000Z

Long time since this first did the rounds but it keeps budding engineers entertained . This list might help you recognise a budding engineer .

There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world.

However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau).

At an average (census) rate of 3.5children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second.

This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child,Santa has around 1/1000th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney,jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house.

Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks.

This means Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second -- 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 miles per hour.

The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself.

On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds.

Even granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them -- Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).

600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake.

The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip.

Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 mps in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g's. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now. Merry Christmas!

Hat tip to the Chemical Department, University of Newcastle.

News Round 3

2012-12-19T07:30:00.000Z

Same sex marriage Scotland

The draft bill to allow same-sex marriage in Scotland was published on 12th December as part of a new consultation on the detail of ministers' proposals to be put to the Scottish Parliament.

Article Journal Online

Rise in child abduction

New figures reveal that the number of parental child abduction cases dealt with by the Foreign Office has risen by 88% in under a decade.

Source Foreign and Commonwealth Office

"The government has just introduced equal shared care" ... No it hasn't

The Government intends to introduce a statutory presumption that both parents should normally be involved in the life of a child in England & Wales. Last week the Justice Committee raised concerns that this would be misunderstood by parents as a right to 50:50 equal time parenting. To illustrate the point within a matter of hours after the Government announced its response to the consultation regarding changes to the Children Act 1989 one father tried to exercise the right to equal shared care in court.

Source Family Law

Sesame Street Tool Kit

Sesame Street has just launched a tool kit to help family, friends and others help children through divorce.

Sibling Contact

Vicki Straiton, solicitor, cl@n writes about the legal obstacles in Scotland to separated siblings seeking contact with each other. In this article she raises concerns that the obstacles aren't effectively addressed in the Children and Young People Bill.

Article The Journal Online

Boris Johnson, Alex Salmond and shopping for divorce

Scottish solicitor Lucia Clark asks in her blawg Do rich divorcing wives fare better in court in London, rather than elsewhere in the world? Apparently not always. Lucia is a dual qualified solicitor (England/Wales and Scotland) and deals with cases on both sides of the border.

The Sun's Comin' Over The Hill

2012-12-16T17:42:00.000Z

Singer/ songwriter Karine Polwart recently headed the Guardian's Best World and Folk Albums of 2012 with her new album. A number of years ago Karine worked for Scottish Women's Aid and at one point she worked with us at the Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin. Her songwriting is often influenced by her previous work with Scottish Women's Aid. This is a great song about overcoming adversities.

Karine performed The Sun's Comin' Over The Hill at Cambridge Folk Festival this year. On cue the heavens opened and we all were drenched, even those of us who were under cover!

Children & Families Bill - Pre-legislative Scrutiny

2012-12-15T07:00:00.000Z

Background - During November 2011 the Family Justice Review panel published its final report setting out its key conclusions and recommendations for the family justice system in England & Wales. The review was sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Justice the Department for Education and the Welsh Assembly Government. It was led by an independent review panel, chaired by David Norgrove.The panel was asked to consider reform of the current systems for:

resolving disputes about contact with children and where they should live when couples break up (private law);
the process of divorce; and
processes when local authorities apply to the courts to take children into care (public law)

Earlier this year the Government accepted the majority of the panel's recommendations including helping and encouraging parents to resolve their disputes outside of court, introducing Child Arrangement Orders, speeding up care cases and establishing a Family Justice Board to drive performance improvements to the system Child Arrangement Orders were recommended to do away with the loaded terminology of "residence" and "contact" which, it was said, create a perception of winning and loosing. In the final report of the review panel the earlier suggestion to change the law so there would be a clause that children have the right to a meaning relationship with both parents was dropped. To this the Government responded by saying it intended to introduce a clause too this effect anyway. There followed consultation (see Government's response here), the Children and Families Bill was drafted and yesterday the Justice Committee published it's report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill.

Child Arrangement Orders - s2(3) of the Bill reads "child arrangements order means an order regulating arrangements relating to any of the following ; (a) with whom a child is to live, spend time or otherwise have contact … The Justice Committee thinks that the meaning of a Child Arrangement or Child Arrangement Order is unclear and it's unlikely a change to the wording of orders from will remove the perception of winners and losers within the family courts. CAOs wouldn't change how international law relating to children operates and there is a risk that the change in terms away from contact and residence may be hard to interpret in other jurisdictions.

Shared Parenting - The legislative statement "to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that involvement of that parent in the life of the child concerned will further the child's welfare" is to be inserted into the Children Act 1989 by means of s1a Children and Families Bill. The Justice Committee sees no point to this as it doesn't change the current position. The law already acknowledges that a meaningful relationship with both parents is generally in a child's best interests. In the Co-operative Parenting Consultation one of the most common complaints is problems with enforcement rather than the order the court made.

The Justice Committee concludes;

187. In our view, it is unlikely that the draft clause on shared parenting, on its own, will change perceptions of bias within the family court system, many of which are entrenched. It is possible that, in combination with changes to MIAMs and Child Arrangements Orders, there may be an overall improvement however slight in perceptions, but on balance, we think that is unlikely. Although the draft clause could lead to a few parents reaching agreement because their perception of the likely outcome of the Court process has changed, given the fact that these will be cases in which there is already a high degree of conflict, this is also unlikely.

188. We have considered the problems raised by individuals who provided evidence of their experiences, and we believe that the absence of enforcement of court orders is a bigger factor in the perception problem than the content of those orders. This makes it regrettable that the Government has not brought forward draft legislation on enforcement for us to consider as part of this pre-legislative scrutiny. Considering our conclusions on all four questions, we maintain significant concerns about whether the draft clause is a necessary or desirable legislative change.

189. We consider that any legislation on this subject, when interpreted objectively, should retain the paramountcy of the welfare of the child, and should prevent shared parenting orders being made where the child is at risk of harm, and/or where, whatever the level of parental involvement, that involvement would not further the welfare of the child. The problem, as we identify it, is how the clause will be subjectively interpreted by parents who appear before the Court, or who agree arrangements for residence and contact without a Court order, but on the basis of what they understand the law to say and mean. The distinction is one of technical drafting versus the practical effect on real families. We recognise concerns about the inclusion of the draft clause, and we consider that if the Government includes the clause in the Bill as introduced, the revised wording which we suggest may reduce the likelihood of its effects being misinterpreted.

Raise in Court Fees

2012-12-12T07:00:00.000Z

The Scottish Government’s Fees Orders for Court of Session, Sheriff Court, High Court, Justice of the Peace court and Office of the Public Guardian fees took effect from Monday 10 December 2012. That means in the Sheriff Court the fees for an initial writ in an action of divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership are now £136, or £104 under the simplified procedure. Initial writs in proceedings which are not prescribed in the table are £87. Further information and fees tables available from the Scottish Courts website.

New Child Support Scheme

2012-12-11T07:00:00.000Z

Yesterday saw the introduction of the new "gross income" child support scheme (CS3). Initially only new cases with four or more children in the same family will be assessed under the new scheme. Once this is found to be working satisfactorily the new rules will be applied to new cases with with two or more children. Then the changes will be applied to all new cases and eventually there will be a gradual transfer of the existing cases.

Under the new rules the paying parent's income will be established from the most recent Tax Return and child maintenance will be calculated on a lower percentage depending on the number of children. The definition of "child" has changed so children continuing "non advanced" eduction will qualify for child support until the age of 20. That brings the rules in line with Child Benefit.

Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008 (Commencement No. 10 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2012

Article Lindsays Solicitors

Forced Marriage Protection Order

2012-12-10T22:02:00.002Z

A year after Scotland introduced new legislation to safeguard individuals rights an unnamed individual has obtained the second protection order to prevent them being forced into marriage. Health Secretary Alex Neil said "Forced marriage affects men as well as women and children and our legislation was designed to protect anyone living in fear or those who are being intimidated in any way."

Full Article Journal Law Society of Scotland

Legal Rights Claims

2012-12-10T22:00:00.000Z

Unlike England in Scotland (and indeed in several other countries) “legal rights” is the automatic right in the estate of a deceased in favour of the deceased’s spouse or children, regardless of whether the deceased died testate or intestate. In the case Hutton’s Trustees v Hutton’s Trustees Lord Salvesen said;

I regard the right that the law gives to children in their father’s estate, in common with the laws of most civilised countries except England, as a very important check on capricious or unjust testaments”

In this article Peter Murrin looks at the steps to be taken when there is an unexpected legal rights claim against an estate from someone coming to light after the death of the deceased.

Source Journal Law Society of Scotland

Something Karen Woodall Did For FNF Scotland

2012-12-09T07:00:00.000Z

In an earlier blog I mentioned Karen Woodall of the Centre For Separated Families was giving talks about her work with high conflict families experiencing parental alienation at an event organised by FNF (Scotland) last week. Karen has posted this video taken at the event on her website.

Good Reason to Take a Flight to Shetland

2012-12-08T08:30:00.000Z

I was going to post a video of the Scottish singer/songwriter Karine Polwart whose songwriting is often influenced by her previous work with Scottish Women's Aid. However another Scottish musician, Adam Sutherland, tipped me off about this CCTV footage apparently taken from behind a bar on the ferry to Shetland so I've postponed Karine until another time. The video has nothing to do with family relationships, although I'm sure I could find a link with Rod Stewart if I really tried.

This incredible footage has particular significance for me. Those who have met me will be aware that I hobble about on crutches these days. Over the last couple of years I've been on ships in rough seas a few times and because I don't have a hand free to hold on to anything I've relied on physics to get about i.e. the greater the momentum forwards the less chance there is of being thrown about laterally. This works well and I often manage a lot better than those who are more able bodied, although I wasn't entirely sure how to take it when someone said I was like a Bat Out of Hell. Somehow I don't think my forwards momentum strategy would work on the ferry to Shetland so in future I'll be flying when I go there.

Debates on Shared Parenting and Research

2012-12-06T07:12:00.000Z

I have plans to do a series of blogs about shared parenting but in the meantime there has been some debate sparked off by the publication in November of the Nuffield study “Taking a longer view of contact: perspectives of young adults who experienced parental separation”. This research looks at how the contact arrangements made by separating parents for their children affect children’s long-term relationships with their parents throughout their childhood and then into adulthood.

Initial reaction to the summary from Lucy Reed of Pink Tape was that the authors were perhaps leaving themselves open to accusations of having an agenda and the child's experience would be drowned out by the noise that follows. Karen Woodall of the Centre for Separated Families said "the ‘lens’ through which this study has been undertaken is clearly that which is informed by the feminist hostility towards fathers and their relationship with their children."

In the Researching Reform post Nuffield's Foundation Latest Research on Shared Parenting Legislation Natasha Phillips makes the point there are always two sides. The controversy is over the validity of the viewpoint of young adults of separated parents who experienced contact arrangements in childhood. After the research coming under fire from fathers' groups and others many have jumped on the bandwagon and not looked before they leaped. The next post Question It? asks "does the use of childhood memories and their interpretation by young adults who experience these memories make the research less valuable?" In the third post Shared Parenting: A Presumptuous Proposition Natasha argues a presumption of shared parenting is a presumption too far and the family justice system doesn't need more law.

The main aim of my blog is signposting and I would encourage readers to read the research and debates for themselves without wearing rose-tinted glasses before making up their own minds. For what it is worth I think research based on peoples' accounts of events and open to interpretation should be treated with caution. Nonetheless this type of study does give a voice to people who would otherwise not be heard which is a good thing and leads to further investigation.

[As well as author of Researching Reform Natasha Phillips is a consultant for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Family Law and The Court of Protection and author of Divorce Manual. The link takes you to an interview with me in 2009 and it's interesting reading back that I was complaining about the lack of specialist family courts in Scotland which are now on the cards!]

Fall of Divorce Rates and Court Cases

2012-12-05T16:53:00.003Z

News of a fall in the Scottish divorce rate this afternoon;

The number of people getting divorced in Scotland fell by 2% in the last year to 9,453, official figures have revealed.

The most common reason for splitting up was that the couples had not lived together for the last year.

Source BBC

Earlier today figures were released indicating there has been a fall in the number of cases brought before the civil courts including family cases.

Source The Journal of the Law Society Scotland

English Solicitors Urged to be Rude

2012-12-04T07:30:00.000Z

An article written by Scottish solicitor Lucia CLark of Morton Fraser last week urged English solicitors to be rude when dealing with cross-border divorce applications between Scotland and England & Wales.

In England & Wales solicitors there is a a Family Law Protocol and the family lawyers organisation, Resolution, also publishes Guides to Good Practice. The aim is to encourage out of court settlements. It is considered good practice to send a draft of a divorce petition to the other spouse to check if they will agree not to defend the divorce and give them the chance to object to a particular allegation.

Of course Scotland has it's own legal system with different divorce procedures. There is no practice in Scotland of sending a draft divorce writ for approval. If a solicitor in England writes to a Scottish solicitor notifying them of the intention to commence divorce proceedings the Scottish solicitor's response will be to raisie a divorce action in Scotland. The convention is that the country where divorce proceedings are first initiated has jurisdiction. So Lucia's advise to English solicitors is be less polite!

The lesson for a spouse who lives in England & Wales and wants to divorce someone living in Scotland is ensure your solicitor appreciates the law is different in Scotland and they know to issue proceedings without notice.

Full article Family Law

Family Law Blogs Scotland

2012-12-03T06:59:00.000Z

After my long break I thought there would be a few more divorce and family law bloggers in Scotland by now to keep me company. I tried a search engine and was somewhat surprised to find my blog mentioned on The Journal of the Law Society of Scotland website. Iain Nisbet of Absolvitor reviews eleven Scottish blawggers to keep an eye on in 2011. If I'd have known that I would have come back a lot sooner!

Unfortunately there still doesn't appear much in the way of interaction between family law bloggers here. If anyone knows of someone please let me know. However, Stephen Moore of CaseCheck left me a comment back in 2010 about their latest site Family Law Edinburgh which has a lot of useful information and a Family Law News section which I have now added to my blogroll.

Novel Way of Collecting Child Support

2012-12-02T09:00:00.000Z

We have all heard of protesting dads but this summer in the music festival season I came across this one mum's revenge. I think this is a beautiful song well sung although apparently it was as written before this particular tale was told - ("you will breathe no more" is artistic licence, I presume!)

Collaborative Law

2012-12-01T09:30:00.000Z

I have been through the links on my blog and discovered some obsolete and broken ones. One obsolete link was for Collaborative Family Lawyers Scotland which is now called Consensus.

For those readers who are new to family separation collaborative law is a process where separating spouses each choose their own lawyer. Both spouses and their respective lawyers meet to work out an agreement that can work for the family around the table. The clients and lawyers sign an agreement that commits the spouses to trying to resolve the issues without going to court and prevents the lawyers from working on the case if the collaborative process breaks down. Before the round the table meetings each spouse has a preliminary meeting with their own lawyer to discuss what needs to be done and to prepare beforehand.

The advantages of collaborative law is that everyone is committed to finding agreement rather than going to court, it avoids conflict so there is no unnecessary damage to long term family relationships and other professionals such as accountants or counsellors can be brought into the process. Because there are no court proceeding the cost are kept down. The disadvantage is if no agreement is reached the spouses have to pay for the collaborative lawyers and then conventional lawyers.