Family Law Commentary Flashcards
Herring (WP)
- Flexibility
2. Time consuming and expensive.
Elster (WP)
- Most recognised principle amongst General Public.
2. Considerations of Justice
Mcnookin (WP)
- Indeterminacy.
2. Recommends presumption of primary care giver, maternal presumption and compromise.
Reece (WP)
- Used as a guise for social opinions.
2. Recommends approach where child isn’t sole consideration.
Hunter with Roberts (Contact)
Contact can preserve links with extended family ensuring extra sources of support for the child.
Women’s Aid (Contact)
- “Pro-contact” approach ha overtaken need for contact to put the child’s best interests first.
- Organisations need to be conscious that pursuing child contact may be a means of enacting control in a DA relationship.
Family solicitors organisation (Resolution)
Misunderstanding of the law may lead victims of DA to fail reporting abuse because they believe the court will order shared care.
Bainham (Contact)
Art 8 establishes a parental right to contact which may be rebutted but only for good reasons.
Gilmore (Contact)
Contact is one of the fundamental elements of respect for family life. However aspects i.e. right to remain free from DA are to be considered.
Family Justice Review (Contact)
Based on Australian experience, legislation shouldn’t be changed as doing so may pose a risk of introducing the view that there is a parental right to shared/equal time parenting.
Harris-Short (Contact)
Shared parenting has more to do with the fairness amongst parents than the welfare of the child.
Trinder (Contact)
- It’s the quality not quantity of contact which matters.
- Three reasons to be cautious of shared contact:
- Exposure to high conflict
- Stressfulness from being removed from primary care-giver
- Burdensome
GB (Contact)
Doesn’t suit the lifestyles of all families.
Hayes and Williams (Threshold)
The relevant date outlined in Re M means a child harmed by one parent in the absence of the other can still be placed in care.
Bainham (Threshold 1)
- Suspicion or possibility cannot be enough as otherwise no parent under previous suspicion would ever feel able to move on and have another child without the spectre of the LA hanging over them.
- Re J strikes a necessary balance between protecting the family from interference and child’s interests.
- Threshold criteria should be made lower for supervision orders in order to enough suspected children at risk of harm are monitored.
