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Little Dorritt and the Human Rights Act
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There’s contempt of court and then there’s contempt for those who don’t pay maintenance for their families. And it’s this category of miscreant who seem to be caught in a Dickensian time warp.
Contempt of court is a relatively well known remedy and we’ve all used it at some time in our careers when our well behaved clients have turned to us for the fourth time in their divorce and said: Yes but how do we get my wife/husband to do what they’ve been ordered to do? Why are we letting them run rings round us – again? And we mumble something about contempt proceedings and our hearts sink as we check the very exacting procedure and get on the phone to the process server.
Never mind those well publicised cases like
Young v Young [2013]EWHC 34 (Fam)
[2014] 1 FLR 269 contempt proceedings are still alive and well in this jurisdiction. And rightly so if our whole legal structure is not to be brought into disrepute.
Look at the...
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