Changes to child maintenance

From 27th October 2008 parents, regardless of whether the parent with care of the children is in receipt of benefits (i.e. income support and other similar benefits), can choose to either pay child maintenance through the Child Support Agency (now part of the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) or reach a private agreement with the other parent for child maintenance.  Prior to 27th October 2008, if the parent with care of the child or children was in receipt of benefits, a referral had to be made to the CSA.

Access by the Media to Family Court Hearings

New rules came into force on the 27 April 2009 allowing representatives of the media to be able to attend private family hearings.  The rules came into place by reason of the government’s intention to introduce legislation to permit the reporting of family proceedings, but due to the limits on reporting, referred to below, it is questionable as to how effective this will be.  The new rules mean that a representative may be in the court room during any hearing relating to children or financial proceedings. It is hard to say at present whether the media will be attending court hearings regularly.  A media representative is not entitled to be present at judicially assisted conciliation or negotiation hearings nor conciliation/negotiation meetings where no judge is present.  An example of this would be a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing within Ancillary Relief proceedings (financial proceedings issued following a divorce petition). They cannot therefore attend a resolution type hearing appointment to the extent that they are used for this purpose.  However, they would be able to attend parts of these hearings to the extent that they are not used for a resolution type purpose i.e. they may be present when the judge gives directions and/or adjudicates on issues between the parties.