Children & Family Dispute

Children and family disputes can arise for a variety of reasons, including:

• Separation and divorce.
• Mismatched wishes and expectations.
• Poor communication.
• Lack of legal understanding (e.g fertility and family law).
• Unexpected change in circumstances.
• Family restructure (e.g. new partner, blended family).
• International conflict of law (e.g. different approaches to assisted conception).
• Unexpected results of a direct-to-consumer DNA test (e.g. creating questions and a dispute about biological and legal parentage).

Children and family disputes under English law can encompass a wide range of issues including: legal parentage, parental responsibility, care of a child, time spent with a child, a child’s name and identity, financial provision for a child, education choices, medical issues, religious upbringing, citizenship and nationality issues.

Children and family disputes can be particularly complex when they involve modern family forms and those created through assisted reproduction. These cases can require expert navigation of complex fertility and family legislation, policy and evolving case law.

We provide expert advice, assistance and legal representation in respect of a dispute about legal status and the care and upbringing of a child under English law, including:

• A legal parentage dispute
• A care and upbringing dispute
• A parental responsibility dispute
• A specific issue dispute
• A surrogacy dispute
• A co-parenting dispute
• A dispute with a known donor or biological parent
• A blended family dispute
• A financial dispute

We have preeminent specialist legal expertise in disputes concerning modern families and those formed through assisted reproduction. We lead at the forefront of fertility and family law and policy in the UK, delivering cutting-edge and innovative legal solutions.

Louisa Ghevaert has dealt with numerous leading cases in the UK dealing with children and family disputes, including:

X v Y [2022] EWFC 77, representing the applicant in an application for a declaration of parentage in the English High Court following a 35-year year search for her biological father to resolve issues relating to her identity and her birth certificate. In granting the declaration of parentage, the court navigated complex legal issues and drew inferences from the respondent’s refusal to undergo DNA testing and lack of opposition to the application.

In Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam), acting for male intended parents who conceived 3 children through egg donation, fertility treatment and surrogacy in an important legal ruling where the English High Court stepped in and granted parental orders due to complex international conflicts of law between the US (California & Oregon), Denmark and the UK which caused serious legal difficulties with the children’s legal parentage, citizenship and residence arrangements and resulted in the Danish authorities threatening to deport the children.

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.

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 following a dispute about legal parental status 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.

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).

Find out more here.

Our expert family and fertility lawyer Louisa Ghevaert regularly commentates on family and fertility law and cases with a genetic aspect including:

“BBC News: DNA Testing and the Law, ‘I could have lost my child’ after flawed DNA test” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog 29 October 2024).

“Declaration Of Parentage: Will This Resolve My Personal Identity, Legal And Biological Parenthood?” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog, 29 December 2023).

Apple Podcast: Sue Perkins Presents “Carrie Jade Does Not Exist: Episode 3 The Surrogate”, (21 November 2023).

“Sperm Donor Fraud: One Year On From Netflix’s Documentary ‘Our Father’” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog, 14 May 2023).

“UK Adoption Order granted to a single non-biological mother for a child born through a Californian surrogacy arrangement”, (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog, 3 March 2023).

“Declaration of Parentage Applications: The Significance of Legal and Biological Parenthood” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog, 14 March 2023).

“Our Father, DNA testing & what do we mean by ‘parentage’? (by Louisa Ghevaert for Fertility Help Hub, a fertility lifestyle platform, 24 August 2022).

“Declaration of parentage: the importance of identity, status and parentage” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates blog, 19 July 2022).

“Declaration of parentage: confirming family ancestry and biological parentage following adoption” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates blog, 8 June 2022).

“Sperm Donor Dispute: Parental Responsibility, Child Arrangements Orders and Fragile X Syndrome” (Louisa Ghevaert Associates’ blog, 7 June 2022).

“Netflix’s Our Father: DNA testing, paternity disputes and questions about biological and legal parentage”, (Louisa Ghevaert Associates blog, 16 May 2022).

“International surrogacy law: existing conflicts unresolved” (BioNews, comment piece by Louisa Ghevaert, 14 March 2022).

Apple podcast on Speak From The Body with Avni Touch entitled “Fertility law for modern families with Louisa Ghevaert” (26 February 2020).

Click here to read more about our media and commentary work in relation to family and fertility law, policy and practice.