Barrister: Sophie Smith-Holland
Source: Family Law Week
Summary: Mr Justice MacDonald determined that the court has jurisdiction pursuant to s.55A(1) of the Family Law Act 1986 to grant a declaration of parentage to a birth parent of a child who had been lawfully adopted. The court referred a number of points to the Family Procedure Rules Committee for their consideration as when the rules set out in Part 8 of the FPR 2010 were drafted, it might not have been appreciated that this was possible, as well as that in some cases, it may be appropriate to grant such a declaration.
This was a decision of Mr Justice MacDonald regarding an application made by Mr H for a declaration of parentage in respect of an adopted child, referred to as T. Mr H is the birth father of T. The respondents to the application were R (birth mother), the local authority (LA) and the adoption agency that placed T for adoption.
T had been joined to the proceedings, but this order had been discharged. The adoptive parents were not joined to the proceedings, but their views were conveyed to the court in a statement. The Attorney General was given notice of the proceedings and served with copies of the relevant documents but did not respond.