Family Law

Rhian Jervis

Solicitor, Family Team Private Capital Group, SGH Martineau LLP:

This back to basics, practical guide about child support maintenance aims to refresh practitioners’ knowledge in terms of what child maintenance is, how it can be paid and the consequences of non-payment against the background of a changing system. This article offers a practical approach in the cases that it considers, including situations where parents are sharing care, where parents live abroad, pay of school fees and where parents reconcile. Guidance is offered for practitioners who are faced with these issues.

Starting points are given so that practitioners can consider how to advise parents who are struggling in navigating the child support system and the author considers the consequences of a system increasingly focussed on parental agreement and the changing role of the family practitioner in this area.

The full version of this article appears in the January 2013 issue of Family Law.