Forced Marriage Protection Order

A year after Scotland introduced new legislation to safeguard individuals rights  an unnamed individual has obtained the second  protection order to prevent them being forced into marriage.  Health Secretary Alex Neil said "Forced marriage affects men as well as women and children and our legislation was designed to protect anyone living in fear or those who are being intimidated in any way."

Full Article Journal  Law Society of Scotland 

Read more...

Legal Rights Claims

Unlike England in Scotland (and indeed in several other countries) “legal rights”  is the automatic right in the estate of a deceased  in favour of the deceased’s spouse or children,  regardless of  whether the deceased died testate or intestate.  In the case Hutton’s Trustees v Hutton’s Trustees Lord Salvesen said; 

I regard the right that the law gives to children in their father’s estate, in common with the laws of most civilised countries except England, as a very important check on capricious or unjust testaments” 

In this article Peter Murrin looks at the steps to be taken when there is an unexpected legal rights claim against an estate from someone  coming  to light after the death of the deceased.

Source  Journal  Law Society of Scotland 

Read more...

Something Karen Woodall Did For FNF Scotland

In an earlier blog I mentioned Karen Woodall  of the Centre For Separated Families was giving talks about her work with high conflict families experiencing parental alienation at an event organised by  FNF (Scotland)  last week.   Karen has posted this  video taken at the event on her website. 

Read more...

Good Reason to Take a Flight to Shetland

I was going to post a video of the Scottish singer/songwriter Karine Polwart whose songwriting is often influenced by her previous work with Scottish  Women's Aid. However another Scottish musician, Adam Sutherland,  tipped me off about this CCTV  footage apparently taken from behind a bar on the ferry to Shetland so I've postponed Karine until another time. The video has nothing to do with family relationships,  although I'm sure I could find  a link with Rod Stewart if I really tried.  

This incredible footage has  particular significance for me. Those who have met me will be aware that I hobble about on crutches these days. Over the last couple of years I've been on ships in  rough seas  a few times and because I don't have a hand free to hold on to anything I've  relied on physics to get about  i.e.  the greater the  momentum forwards  the less chance there is of  being thrown about laterally. This works  well and I often manage a lot better than those who are more able bodied,  although I wasn't entirely sure how to take it when someone  said I was like a Bat Out of  Hell.    Somehow I don't think my forwards momentum strategy would work on the ferry to Shetland so in future   I'll be flying when I go there.   

Read more...

Debates on Shared Parenting and Research

I have plans to do a series of blogs about shared parenting  but in the meantime there has been some debate sparked off by the publication  in November of the Nuffield study “Taking a longer view of contact: perspectives of young adults who experienced parental separation”.  This research  looks at how the contact arrangements made by separating parents for their children affect children’s long-term relationships with their parents throughout their childhood and then into adulthood.

Initial reaction to the summary  from Lucy Reed of Pink Tape was that the authors were perhaps leaving themselves open to accusations of having an agenda  and the child's experience would be drowned out by the noise that follows. Karen Woodall of the Centre for Separated Families  said "the ‘lens’ through which this study has been undertaken is clearly that which is informed by the feminist hostility towards fathers and their relationship with their children." 

In the Researching Reform  post Nuffield's Foundation Latest Research on Shared Parenting Legislation Natasha Phillips makes the point there are always two  sides. The controversy is over the validity of the viewpoint of young adults of separated parents  who experienced contact arrangements in childhood. After the research coming  under fire from fathers' groups  and others many have jumped on the bandwagon and not looked before they leaped.   The next post Question It? asks "does the use of childhood memories and their interpretation by young adults who experience these memories make the research less valuable?" In the third post Shared Parenting: A Presumptuous Proposition  Natasha argues a presumption of shared parenting is a presumption too far and the family justice system doesn't need more law. 

The main aim of my blog is signposting and I would encourage readers to read the research  and debates for themselves without wearing rose-tinted glasses before making up their own minds.  For what it is worth I think  research based on peoples' accounts of events and open to interpretation should be treated   with caution. Nonetheless this type of study does give a voice to people who  would otherwise not be heard which is a good thing  and leads to further investigation.  

[As well as author of Researching Reform  Natasha Phillips is a consultant for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Family Law  and The Court of Protection and author of  Divorce Manual. The link takes you to an interview with me in 2009 and it's interesting reading back that I was complaining about the lack of specialist family courts in Scotland which are now on the cards!]  

Read more...