Family Law

More resources are urgently needed in the family law system, a leading solicitor has said after new figures from Women's Aid revealed reports of domestic violence are at a record high. Women's Aid said its national and regional frontline services were contacted 32,144 times in 2024, an increase of 1

Judges, lawyers and court staff need to better understand domestic violence and abuse to prevent the "secondary victimisation" of victims and survivors, a new report into the Irish family law system has said. Women's Aid commissioned researchers at Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork

An Irish lawyer has welcomed an Italian court ruling that women in same-sex relationships who conceive children abroad through IVF should both be named as mothers on their children's birth certificates. Italy's Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that it was discriminatory not to include the names

A first-of-its-kind research study into the operation of the in camera rule in family law proceedings has been published by the Department of Justice. Researchers from University College Cork and Trinity College Dublin have made 21 recommendations for reform, while affirming that family law proceedi

Plans to implement major reforms to the family court system will be set out by the end of January 2026, the government has said. The Family Courts Act 2024 provides for the establishment of family court divisions within the existing court structures — a Family High Court, a Family Circuit Cour

Plans to reform the in camera rule in family law proceedings and establish a new private family law reporting project have been set out by the minister for justice. Jim O'Callaghan yesterday hosted his first meeting of the Family Justice Development Forum, where the findings of a major research stud

A mother whose parental authority over her daughter was terminated just four months after the child was taken into foster care suffered a violation of her right to respect for her family life, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. Ruling yesterday on a Dutch case, the Strasbourg court found

The High Court has identified a "legislative lacuna" around the question of citizenship for children born abroad to one or more Irish parents in a same-sex relationship. Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan handed down judgment last week in respect of two families whose children were refused Irish passp

A public survey has been launched to help inform the development of new voluntary guidelines related to the payment of child maintenance. The development of guidelines to help inform parents on how to make private child maintenance arrangements was one of the recommendations of a Department of Justi

The Legal Aid Board has opened a new law and family mediation centre in Castlebar. The new centre in Cavendish House brings the former law centre and family mediation office under one roof and is expected to assist more than 1,000 people in its first year of operation.

The High Court has refused to grant leave for judicial review of a judge’s refusal to recuse herself due to allegations of bias and of an order lifting the in camera rule. Delivering judgment for the High Court, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty explained: “At its height, this is a case in whi

Northern Ireland’s High Court has declared that a man who was registered as the father of a child did not acquire parental responsibility of that child where he and the mother had perjured themselves. Delivering judgment for the High Court, Mr Justice David McFarland determined that “AB,

The Supreme Court has determined that the High Court erred in concluding that the plaintiffs followed incorrect procedure in bringing contempt proceedings against the Child and Family Agency, Tusla. Delivering judgment for the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Hogan remarked that “one cannot but be di

Journalists and bloggers can now report from most family court hearings in England and Wales following the introduction of new open reporting provisions. The new rules, which came into effect yesterday, allow journalists and legal bloggers to report on what they see and hear while attending any fami

A former UK Supreme Court president has said that parents who have to fight for access to their children without legal representation are being deprived of their human rights. Lord Neuberger, who was the UK's most senior judge from 2012 to 2017, told The Guardian that the removal of legal aid from f