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Breakdown cover

14 March 2019 / David Burrows
Issue: 7832 / Categories: Features , Family
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Child support: David Burrows provides a master class in family law & administration law

  • Kafka, Dicey and a child support scheme.

The 25th anniversary of the opening of the doors of the Child Support Agency (now Child Maintenance Service (CMS)) was recorded, with no enthusiasm on my part, by ‘Going separate ways’ 168 NLJ 7790, p9. The Department for Work and Pensions presides over a Kafkaesque scheme. For example, it hopelessly delays necessary enforcement and needlessly involves five different courts and tribunals:

  • magistrates’ courts civil jurisdiction (eg committal for enforcement of arrears);
  • the family court (eg lump sum deduction orders);
  • the county court (charging orders: arrears);
  • first-tier tribunals; and
  • the upper tribunal (‘administrative’ appeals (to be explained in Pt 2 of this article).
  •  

    Beyond this are rights to appeal: to the High Court, Family Division, to the Court of Appeal and to the Supreme Court (with permission). Alongside this is judicial review, often the only means of challenge to child support delegated legislation and CMS civil servant decision-making

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    NEWS
    Ceri Morgan, knowledge counsel at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer LLP, analyses the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd, which reshapes the law of fiduciary relationships and common law bribery
    The boundaries of media access in family law are scrutinised by Nicholas Dobson in NLJ this week
    Reflecting on personal experience, Professor Graham Zellick KC, Senior Master of the Bench and former Reader of the Middle Temple, questions the unchecked power of parliamentary privilege
    Geoff Dover, managing director at Heirloom Fair Legal, sets out a blueprint for ethical litigation funding in the wake of high-profile law firm collapses
    James Grice, head of innovation and AI at Lawfront, explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the legal sector
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