Family Law

Richard Little, Barrister, Tooks Chambers. The effect of domestic violence on an application for contact was considered exhaustively in the well-known and much quoted case of Re L (Contact: Domestic Violence); Re V (Contact: Domestic Violence); Re M (Contact: Domestic Violence); Re H (Contact: Domestic Violence) [2000] 2 FLR 334 (Re L). More than 5 years on, what have become of the issues the judgments sought to address? The case comprised a group of four appeals to the Court of Appeal by fathers who had been refused direct contact with their children. All four cases had involved violence in the home. The court availed itself of the, as then, yet to be published report of the Children Act Sub Committee, A Report to the Lord Chancellor on the Question of Parental Contact in Cases where there is Domestic Violence (TSO, 2000) and a report from Drs Sturge and Glaser, eminent child psychiatrists (see Contact and Domestic Violence The Experts' Court Report [2000] Fam Law 615). Taking into account all of the material before it, the court dismissed all four appeals. The court gave valuable general guidance. See July [2006] Fam Law 552 for the full article.

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