Family Law News Edinburgh

More than a quarter of the respondents to a recent survey of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) have noted an increase in pet custody cases during the past five years.

Single parent charity Gingerbread has once again expressed concern over planned changes to child maintenance arrangements that are currently going through Parliament.

Recent research released by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People has revealed that over half (55%) of children caught up in contact disputes between parents where domestic abuse is alleged to have taken place no longer wish to have contact with their non-resident parent. In the majority of these cases, the non-resident parent is their father.

A recent study from Australia has suggested that a reduction in conflict between separated families is more likely to be the result of increased relationship services than parenting time arrangements.

The UK Government has recently announced an additional £16 million in funding that will be available to adoption agencies in England until 2016 to help address the shortfall of adopters.

A major study from the University of Bristol and children’s grant-giving charity, Buttle UK has provided the most comprehensive picture to date of informal kinship care — children cared for informally by relatives and friends because their parents are no longer able to look after them.

A father from New York is finally in the hands of US authorities after fleeing the country in an attempt to evade his child support obligations, reports CNN.

A new study mapping when children spend time with their father after divorce has revealed a shift away from children only spending time with their father every second weekend.

Jackie Brock, Chief Executive of Children in Scotland, has welcomed the launch of Scottish Government’s Parenting Strategy, saying that it presents an opportunity to strengthen the Government’s flagship Children and Young People Bill.

A recent survey carried out by the Fostering Network has found that 90% of Scottish children in care and sons and daughters of foster carers think that foster carers should receive a proper salary. Around 80% also believe that foster carers should be paid an allowance to cover the costs of providing foster care, and that this allowance should be set at the same level across Scotland.

Many fathers who have children who live all or part of their time with their mother would like to be more involved in their children’s lives, according to new research released by the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

The Heritage Foundation in America has claimed that the collapse of marriage, along with a dramatic rise in births to single women, is the most important cause of childhood poverty but government policy doesn’t reflect that reality.

Monthly child support payments in the United States averaged $430 per month in 2010, according to new U.S. Census Bureau statistics.