Family Law offers a guide to the essential law, practice, and procedure that is at the heart of the Legal Practice Course. Offering material that is highly practical in nature and providing a concise account of the major aspects of the subject area, this text is an excellent guide for LPC candidates who need to develop a sound knowledge of the fundamentals of the law and procedure in a short period of time. This edition has been revised to include the latest developments in the legal field and discusses the relevant law likely to be encountered by the trainee solicitor in practice. Using sample forms, checklists and self-test questions as well as examples, the book offers a bridge between the notes and exercises provided by LPC lecturers and the more complex practitioner texts. Online Resource Centre The 2009 edition will be accompanied by an Online Resource Centre which will provide updates on any developments in the area of family law.

General matters 1. The first interview 2. Community legal service fund and public funding for family proceedings Divorce: the decree 3. The Civil Partnership Act 2004 4. The ground for divorce and the five facts 5. Bar on presentation of divorce petitions within one year of marriage 6. Jurisdiction in divorce and proceedings to disolve a civil partnership 7. Drafting a divorce petition 8. Undefended divorce: procedure for obtaining the decree 9. Amended, supplemental, and new petitions 10. Protection of respondents in separation cases: ss. 5 and 10, Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 Ancillary relief after divorce 11. Ancillary relief orders available 12. Procedure for ancillary relief applications 13. Factors to be considered on ancillary relief applications 14. Child Support Acts 1991 and subsequent amendments 15. Preventing and setting aside dispositions under s. 37, Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 16. Collection and Enforcement of ancillary relief orders 17. Variation of ancillary relief orders Financial provision and property during marriage 18. Financial provision and property during marriage 19. Separation and maintenance agreements Taxation 20. Tax considerations Welfare benefits 21. Welfare benefits Occupation orders and non-molestation orders: Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996 22. Occupation orders and non-molestation orders: Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996 General matters concerning the home and other property 23. The home: preventing a sale or mortgage 24. Establishing an interest in property - section 17, Married Women's Property Act 1882 and the law relating to constructive and resulting trusts 25. The question of wills Children 26. The Children Act 1989 - the section 8 orders and general principles 27. Procedures for obtaining a section 8 order 28. Preventing the removal of a child from the jurisdiction 29. Children in local authority care 30. Emergency protection of children Cohabitants 31. Cohabitants The Human Rights Act 1998 32. The Human Rights Act 1998 and its impact on family law