Complex Children & Family Law
Complex Children and Family Law
The creation of modern families and those built through assisted conception can raise a wide range of complex, unforeseen and unwanted legal and practical issues, including:
- Relationship issues with an existing or previous partner, known donor, co-parent or surrogate.
- Uncertainty about legal status of a new partner for a child.
- Lost or impaired fertility (illness, injury, medical negligence) thereby requiring fertility treatment, donor conception and surrogacy.
- Age, social, cultural, gender, medical and religious issues affecting family building and family life.
- International lifestyle legal and practical issues (e.g. international conflicts of law about legal status and rights of children, parents and families across different jurisdictions or following relocation).
- Issues arising from a direct-to-consumer DNA test (e.g. applications for a Declaration of Parentage, Orders for DNA testing, rectification of birth certificates and management of relationships with previously unknown genetic relations).
- Problems with consent to storage and use of eggs, sperm and embryos for posthumous conception following death of a loved one.
- Issues with consent to legal parenthood following fertility treatment at a UK fertility clinic (e.g. errors or loss of HFEA consent forms).
- Novel, unusual, high net worth and high profile personal situations affecting family building and family life (e.g. heightened confidentiality needs, additional VIP service levels, multi-disciplinary expertise requirements, need for cutting-edge legal solutions).
We provide expert specialist legal advice. We operate at the forefront of law, policy and practice , delivering innovative legal solutions to meet the needs of modern families and those with complex personal situations.
How we can help
Our legal services include:
- Legal packages
- Bespoke legal advice tailored to your situation, needs and wishes
- Preparation of legal documentation
- Legal support and representation in court proceedings
Package One
Complex personal or family situation - legal review
This provides initial tailored expert advice for those with complex personal, children and family issues. It can encompass a wide range of issues, including:
- Legal advice on family and fertility law in the UK and its application internationally.
- Legal advice on legal parentage and parental responsibility for a child under English law.
- Legal advice on a child’s upbringing and legal and practical implications arising in the UK.
- Legal advice on legal and biological identity, status, legacy and family narrative under English law.
- Identifies legal and practical risks and steps to mitigate these.
- Answers legal and practical questions.
- Creates a tailored legal and practical action plan.
Note:
This consultation does not provide medical advice. It only provides initial specialist advice on fertility and family law in the UK (and not law in other jurisdictions). It does not include preparation or review of legal documents or legal representation. Terms and conditions apply. For further legal advice and assistance consider our other legal packages and bespoke legal services.
If you require legal assistance or wish to discuss a complex children and family law matter contact us
+44 (0) 20 7965 8399
Bespoke legal services
We also provide further expert tailored legal advice and representation concerning complex children, fertility and family law issues under English law, including:
- Wardship order
- Declaration of parentage order
- An adoption order under English law
- An order recognising a foreign adoption under English law
- Parental responsibility order
- Child arrangements order
- A specific issue order
- A financial provision order
- Posthumous conception court order
- A parental order following international surrogacy
- Expert witness law service
Read more about our expert bespoke fertility law services:
Family Building Options & Law Fertility Preservation Law Complex Personal Situations Fertility Treatment Law Donor Conception & Co-parenting Law Surrogacy Law Posthumous Conception Law Assisted Reproduction Dispute
Read more about our other expert bespoke family law services:
Legal Parentage Parental Responsibility Law Financial Provision Care & Upbringing of a Child Complex Children & Family Law Modern & Blended Family Law
Leading cases
Louisa Ghevaert has dealt with numerous leading cases in the UK dealing with complex children, fertility and family law, including:
Re X,Y and Z (Children: Parental Orders: Time Limit) [2022] EWHC 198 (Fam), an important legal ruling where the English High Court stepped in and granted 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.
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).
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.
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.
Y v A Healthcare NHS Trust & The HFEA & Z (by his litigation friend, The Official Solicitor) [2018] EWCOP 18, a first-of-its kind judgment in which Louisa was part of the wife’s legal team and 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).
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.
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.
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).
Read more here.
News and commentary
“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).
“Declaration of Parentage: resolving family ancestry, questions about parentage and birth certificates”, Louisa Ghevaert Associates blog (30 November 2021).
“The global legal identity gap”, Louisa Ghevaert Associates blog (21 August 2020).
“The UK Supreme Court awards damages for commercial surrogacy” (BioNews, comment piece by Louisa Ghevaert, 6 April 2020).
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.
