Well Known Cases
Louisa Ghevaert has dealt with leading and groundbreaking fertility and family law cases in the UK since 2008. These cases transcend the fertility, family and medical sectors. They have helped change and improve law, policy and practice in Britain for fertility patients, parents, children and families.
2024
Re G v Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority & Anor [2024] EWHC 2453 (Fam), raises important legal and factual issues about posthumous conception that have not previously been considered by the English Court. This difficult case concerned the storage and use of a young woman’s eggs, who tragically died in June 2023 within six months of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. The case was brought by her mother who sought permission to use her deceased daughter’s 20 frozen eggs to have a baby through surrogacy. The President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, ruled that she could not do so because there was a lack of explicit written consent from her daughter. However, this legal ruling is important because the President concluded for the first time that the law does allow a relative, such as a mother, to use a deceased’s frozen gametes (eggs or sperm) after their death to have a baby with a surrogate provided the deceased person has given written consent on a prescribed form.
Posthumous conception, donor conception, surrogacy, complex personal situation.
2022
X v Y [2022] EWFC 77; representing the applicant in a complex application for a declaration of parentage in the English High Court following an ancestry website search and a 35-year quest to find her biological father to resolve issues relating to her identity and her birth certificate. In granting the application, the court highlighted the fundamental importance relating to identity, status and parentage and the re-registration of birth certificates to provide properly maintained records not just for the benefit of individuals but for the public as well. In doing so, the court navigated complex legal issues and drew inferences from the respondent’s refusal to undergo DNA testing.
Legal parentage, declaration of parentage, children and family law, DNA testing, complex personal situation.
Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam), is a complex legal ruling where the English High Court stepped in to grant parental orders for 3 surrogate born children following complex international conflicts of law between the US (California & Oregon), Denmark and the UK, extending the six-month statutory deadline for issue post birth and carefully navigating complex legal issues associated with the collapse of a US surrogacy agency, a pending criminal charge of assault against one of the intended parents and serious legal difficulties in Denmark where Danish authorities threatened to deport the children.
International surrogacy law, US commercial surrogacy, children and family law
2020
Whittington Hospital NHS Trust v XX [2020] UKSC 14; A landmark ruling where the UK Supreme Court by a majority of 3:2 dismissed the defendant hospital’s appeal. This enabled the recovery of damages for commercial surrogacy, donor conception and fertility treatment in the US for a woman rendered infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in the case, which featured in The Guardian (1 April 2020) and in BioNews (6 April 2020).
Fertility treatment, fertility preservation and maximisation, commercial surrogacy, donor conception, medical negligence and fertility law.
2019
XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2018] EWCA Civ 2832; where for the first time the Court of Appeal awarded damages for the costs of fertility treatment, donor eggs and commercial surrogacy in California for a woman rendered infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in the case, which featured in The Telegraph 19 December 2018 and The Times, The Telegraph, The Mail Online and The Mirror on 27 January 2019.
Fertility treatment, fertility preservation and maximisation, surrogacy, donor conception, medical negligence and family law.
2018
Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18, a first-of-its kind judgement which secured a unique legal ruling from the Court of Protection to extract and store sperm from a fatally injured man for use in posthumous fertility treatment and featured in The Independent (13 July 2018) and The Times (14 July 2018).
Posthumous conception and fertility treatment law
AB v CD, EF, GH & IL [2018] EWHC 1590 (Fam), representing an intended mother in international contested assisted reproduction and modern family law proceedings in the High Court concerning 2 surrogate born children. This case marks a legal first in the treatment of blended families in the UK following assisted reproduction, divorce, re-marriage, serious allegations of domestic violence and abuse as well as the legal status and identity of two surrogate born children, their biological, intended and social parents and arrangements for the children’s care and upbringing.
International surrogacy law dispute, children and family law
2017
XX v Whittington Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWHC 2318 (QB), being the first legal case in the UK in which the High Court awarded damages to a woman for altruistic UK surrogacy and fertility treatment following a delay in detecting cancer in smear tests and biopsies. This case marks the cross-section of fertility, family and medical negligence law. It highlights the importance of fertility, surrogacy and family law aspects when medical negligence renders a woman infertile and unable to carry a pregnancy. Louisa Ghevaert gave expert evidence in this case.
Fertility treatment, fertility preservation and maximisation, surrogacy, donor conception, medical negligence and family law
2016
In the matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case V) [2016] EWHC 2356 (Fam), obtaining a declaration of parentage in the High Court for a woman in a same-sex relationship for a child conceived through fertility treatment at a UK fertility clinic licensed by the HFEA. The HFEA Consent Form WP was missing from the clinic file. The case for the first time gave guidance on the practice of making interim costs orders in favour of patients to fund litigation and access to justice following errors in the completion of consent forms at UK fertility clinics.
Fertility treatment, children and family law
2014
In JP v LP & Ors [2014] EWHC 595 (Fam), acting for the intended father in a high profile complex UK surrogacy dispute case following marriage breakdown and divorce. This case established for the first time a legal framework for cases where the legal criteria for a parental order cannot be met, including wardship, and featured in The Telegraph, BBC News and Mail Online (6 March 2014).
UK surrogacy law dispute, children and family law
2013
In Re C [2013] EWHC 2408 (Fam), obtaining a parental order for intended parents who conceived a child through a Californian (USA) commercial surrogacy arrangement. This case redefines the English Court’s approach to the authorisation of commercial payments in view of the UK public policy restriction against commercial surrogacy.
International surrogacy, children and family law
2012
Andrea Heywood, who aged 24, was denied IVF funding on the NHS by her local hospital authority for being too young and featured in The Independent and Mail Online (4 June 2012).
Fertility treatment and medical law
2011
Donna and Dean Marshall, helping them win a rare legal battle against their PCT for funding for IVF treatment on the NHS and featured in The Telegraph and BBC South Today (20 December 2011) and the Portsmouth News (21 December 2011).
Fertility treatment and medical law
In Re IJ (a Child) [2011] EWHC 921, obtaining a parental order for British parents whose surrogate born child was born stateless and parentless in Ukraine. The case highlights the legal difficulties associated with foreign surrogacy and the importance of expert legal advice.
International surrogacy, children and family law
2010
In Re L (a minor) [2010] EWHC 3146 (Fam), obtaining a parental order for British parents who conceived a child with a US surrogate mother. The case marks a legal watershed ruling that the welfare of the child is decisive over the public policy ban on commercial surrogacy in the UK except in the clearest cases of abuse of public policy and featured in The Telegraph (8 December 2010).
International surrogacy, children and family law
2009
Melanie and Robert Gladwin, helping them to save their frozen embryos from destruction and winning a high profile last minute change to the law in relation to embryo storage in September 2009. Louisa Ghevaert was subsequently featured as The Times Lawyer of the Week (1 October 2009) and Law Society Gazette Lawyer in the News (17 September 2009).
Embryo and fertility treatment law
2008
In Re X and Y (foreign surrogacy) [2008] EWHC 3030 (Fam), being the first case in UK legal history to test the law for British parents conceiving through an international commercial surrogacy arrangement and which involved complex and groundbreaking legal issues, featured in BioNews (January 2009)
International surrogacy, children and family law