Sandra Davis' Week: Payne-Less

Writing in these pages earlier this year I suggested that the ongoing controversy surrounding the decision in Payne v Payne could be dampened by the re-affirmation that in relocation cases as in all other cases concerning children welfare is the paramount consideration.

By happy coincidence last week's decision of the Court of Appeal in MK v CK made the very same point.

At paragraph 86 of the judgment Lord Justice Moore-Bick's noted that "the only principle of law enunciated in Payne v Payne is that the welfare of the child is paramount; all the rest is guidance."

This may sound like a statement of the obvious. However in my view it serves to reverse a wrong headed judicial approach which has held sway for a decade and more.

The last ten years had indeed seen paragraph 32 of Payne elevated to a legal principle. This...

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