Family Law

A record number of divorce applications were brought to the High Court last year, with a 10 per cent increase in cases with more than €3 million in assets at stake, according to reports. There were 53 divorce cases initiated in the High Court and 5,498 in the Circuit Court in 2022, the Irish In

Family lawyers have been left disappointed by reports that the construction of the long-awaited family courts complex at Hammond Lane will not begin until 2026. The Hammond Lane site was earmarked in 2014 for the development, which is intended to replace the existing facilities for family law at Dol

Northern Ireland's High Court has refused leave to apply for judicial review to a man with a deportation order who argued that he had British citizenship as a result of his adoption by a UK/Italian couple despite being born in Italy. The court also found that the deportation order did not impact on

Dolphin House has been closed for a 10-day period to allow essential works to take place, the Courts Service has said. The Dolphin House courts office and court 41 have been temporarily relocated to Phoenix House until Friday 18 August 2023.

Victims of domestic violence will receive their full pay for five days under the domestic violence leave scheme set to be introduced later this year, the government has announced. Domestic violence leave will be formally introduced in the autumn with the publication of regulations setting out the ra

Lone parents will no longer have to prove they have made efforts to seek child maintenance from their child's other parent when applying for the one-parent family payment or jobseekers' transitional payment. The new regulations, signed into effect by social protection minister Heather Humphreys, fol

A leading family lawyer has urged the government to begin work on the proposed new Hammond Lane family courts complex as the site remains untouched more than a year on from the project's approval. The long-promised Hammond Lane complex is intended to replace the existing facilities for family law at

Legislation providing for the establishment of a Family Court as divisions within the existing Irish court structures requires significant improvement and will fail without greater investment, the Law Society has said. Peter Doyle, principal solicitor at Doyle Fox & Associates and chair of the L

A review of enforcement of child maintenance orders is "at an advanced stage and expected to be completed in the coming months", the government has said. Justice minister Helen McEntee today gave an update on the implementation of actions in the Family Justice Strategy 2022-2025 to the Family Justic

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has determined that a child return order under the Hague Convention should not have been stayed pending the outcome of his mother’s UK asylum appeal application. The court highlighted that the return order was directed towards Switzerland, the child&rsq

The Court of Appeal has held that section 47 of the Family Law Act 1995 does not confer a jurisdiction on a court to direct the preparation of a psychologists’ report concerning the welfare of a child where no specific relief is sought relating to child welfare. The legislation had received li

The High Court has dismissed an appeal against a decision by the Legal Services Regulatory Authority (LSRA) regarding a €232,000 legal bill charged by a solicitor in family law proceedings. The appellant had claimed that the fees were excessive and that she had expected the fees to be approxima

Northern Ireland’s Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal which stemmed from a child residence order application request brought by a father in a long series of litigation with the child’s mother. The court refused the appeal, finding that it had been brought for improper purposes and w

Parental alienation is a "highly controversial" concept and the use of the term in Irish legal settings should be treated with serious caution, researchers have said. Though the term is being used increasingly often by Irish judges, they "do not appear to use an agreed definition of [parental aliena

Claire Edgar of Belfast-based Francis Hanna & Co Solicitors examines a recent Northern Ireland court ruling on non-molestation order applications. The High Court of Northern Ireland recently handed down judgment in the judicial review case of JR231. The judgment explores the legal test to be app