Just a quick note to let you know that you can now contact me quickly on Whats App  by pressing the  green button on our website www.mortlakelaw.co.uk to create a  free Chat. The Free Legal Guidance and Advice  page under About on our web site has also been updated with regard to representing yourself in court published by The Bar Council.If you are in that position I can offer you additional tips as a former Advocate in the High Court of Singapore and helping clients in the family courts throughout London. Source: | 30-04-2024 ..read more

Facts: These proceedings concern the welfare of two children; E, who is aged eleven, and F, aged five. Their parents divorced in April 2021 and had informal arrangements in place for the father to spend time with the children. The mother had travelled to St Lucia in July of 2022 and left F in the care of her mother. The father saw E for contact on the 22nd of October 2022 but, by early January 2023, the contact arrangements had broken down. G – the daughter from a previous relationship – alleged some abuses from the father. The mother made similar allegations of abuse between 2011 and 2021. Th ..read more

Facts: This case concerns care proceedings for a 4-year-old known as X and addresses whether HD can be permitted to spend time unsupervised with the child. HD and TL were appointed as Special Guardians for X in March of 2020 and he remained in their care until the events of September 2022. They were approved as foster carers and Y was placed in their care in August 2022. HD was a social worker until September 2022 when Y sustained serious injuries in the care of HD and TL.  It was evidenced that the injuries were caused by TL but that HD had not disclosed previous injuries and had failed ..read more

Welcome to our revised professionally prepared Family law Newsletters. These will provide you with the latest news around the fast moving world of Family law. We have teamed up with Informanagement UK Ltd who have been providing newsletters for Accountants and Tax advisers since 2002 and now Lawyers. The articles will also  be shared on our own social media channels giving you essential latest information about both our practice and services. We  really hope you will find the article is interesting and helpful either as an existing client or past client of our company ..read more

Facts: This case concerns SM, a 12-year-old girl with profound and enduring disabilities. She was diagnosed with lissencephaly aged 5 months and is non-mobile, non-verbal and fed via a gastrojejunal button. She also has epilepsy, global development delay and scoliosis. The situation is described ‘in practical terms’ as being unable to leave her bed of her own volition and, according to her Mother, does not like sitting up. Her only body control is to be able to push her hands away and to wriggle and roll from side to side. She cannot communicate in any form and does not understand language. &n ..read more

Interview with Richard Buxton: Pioneering Mediator Shares Insights Please share a brief overview of your journey in the field of civil and commercial mediation. I witnessed the horrendous stress, costs, and complexities of litigation early in my career. I experienced this even more personally in the early 1990’s as a father not being able to see his firstborn son and having to go through High Court litigation and the probation service (pre CAFCASS). I resolved professionally to explore other options. Firstly, I turned to arbitration and took an evening course in the City of London. I became an ..read more

Facts: The Father, F, a Nigerian national arrived in the UK in 2012 while the mother and the three older children, all Nigerian nationals, joined in 2014. The children were placed in the Father’s care in September of 2016. In December 2016, he took them to Nigeria and left them there to be cared for by relatives. They stayed in Nigeria until December 2018 with rare contact with their Father (only twice a year). The children returned to the UK in December 2018 after the parents had reconciled. K was born in 2019 prior to the threat of abduction.  In November 2021, they separated due to dom ..read more

Facts: The father made an application for the summary return to Italy of his two children XR, born in December 2017 and aged 6, and XZ, born in May 2020 and aged 3, relying on the Hague Convention of 1980. The children were removed on 19 December 2022 and brought to the UK after the Italian police were involved in handing the children’s passports over in a case which tested whether their habitual residence had changed.   Decision:  Mr Justice Cusworth was very careful and rendered a very detailed judgement. He first explained that, although the evidence was heard virtually, he was sa ..read more

Facts: The parties were born in Russia, married there in 1983, and lived there all their lives until the wife moved to London after their divorce in Russia in 2014. They have three adult children. In the 1990s, the husband amassed a large fortune, currently estimated at $20 billion. Most of his assets – accumulated during the marriage – were held in companies or trusts but not registered in the husband’s name. The Russian courts did not consider them marital assets.  Following their divorce, extensive litigation occurred in Russia, the USA and Cyprus. In 2019, the wife sought permission t ..read more

A wife fails to get rid of an application to debar her solicitors.  Facts: Mrs Alvina Collardeau and Mr Michael Fuchs have been embroiled in a bitter divorce since separating in March of 2020. In 2022, Mrs Alvina Collardeau was awarded £37 million under a pre-nuptial agreement and more by way of child support. Mr William Harrison was not party to any of the litigation relating to financial or custody matters. He started working as chief of staff in the family office in 2018 – working for both the husband and wife. When the marriage was breaking down, he made it clear to both that he would ..read more