Family Law

The most senior family judge in England and Wales has appealed to law firms to make donations to a legal charity to help tackle delays in the family courts. Sir Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division, said that "modest annual contributions" to Support Through Court, a charity providing f

As part of the programme to mark 20 years since the creation of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) has been publishing twenty “20 year” blog posts on SPICe Spotlight over the course of 2019. This blog, by Sarah Harvie-Clark, senior researcher (civ

A new report produced for the Scottish Parliament's Justice Committee critically analyses the Children (Scotland) Bill 2019. The report, written by Dr Lesley-Anne Barnes Macfarlane of Edinburgh Napier University, outlines the extent to which the proposed legislation, which is currently at stage

Family lawyer Sarah Hay has welcomed the roll-out of a new court form giving children in Scotland as young as five years old a greater say on their own contact and residence rights. Form F9, the controversial court form for intimation to a child, has been replaced in a bid to improve meaningful part

Jones Whyte is hosting another free drop-in divorce clinic following the success of the first two.

University of Glasgow academics are developing a board game to help the public negotiate the complex legal world of marriage.

The Scottish government has published new legislation that aims to ensure children’s best interests are at the centre of every family law case and that children’s views are heard in court. The Children (Scotland) Bill includes regulation of child contact centres to ensure they are safe p

The Scottish Law Commission (SLC) is keen to hear from family law practitioners about their experiences, and those of their clients, of claims under the cohabitation provisions in the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006. The commission would be grateful if practitioners would take time to compl

In a series of three full-day workshops this year, funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, academics and practitioners will critically review the role and impact of the Scottish Parliament on child and family law in Scotland. 2019 marks the twentieth anniversary of the re-establishment of the Scot

Plans to extend abortion access and same-sex marriage to Northern Ireland have been approved by the House of Lords, following revisions to the process and timetable. MPs voted last week to amend the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill to include provisions on abortion and marriage which will

The laws around surrogacy are outdated and should be improved to better support the child, surrogates and intended parents, the Law Commission of England and Wales and the Scottish Law Commission have announced today. Surrogacy is where a woman bears a child on behalf of someone else or a couple, wh

There has been a 125 per cent increase in the use of post-nuptial agreements in the past year at one law firm. Alison McKee, partner and head of family law at Lindsays, told The Scotsman that the firm has seen a large increse in requests for post-nuptial agreements in the past year.

Advocate and family law expert Kirsty Malcolm will deliver a Glasgow seminar on cohabitation next month, hosted by Jones Whyte Law. The seminar, "Increase in Cohabitation and the difficulties arising in these specialist cases", is aimed at lawyers who have dealings with cohabitation issues, includin

Court forms used to seek the views of children in family and civil partnership actions are to be replaced with revamped child-friendly versions. The Family Law Committee of the Scottish Civil Justice Council has carried out work on an instrument that will replace the current court form.

Plans to bolster the law in relation to keeping siblings together when they are placed in local authority care, where it is in their interests to do so, have been announced. The changes will impose a duty on local authorities to take steps to promote personal relations and contact between brothers a