Category: Family Law

  • How to Change a Name by Deed Poll

    If you want to change a name by deed poll, the Judgments Section of the Central Office of the High Court will be your first port of call. The Judgments Section/Deed Poll section will give you precedent wordings that you can use and adapt to your own particular circumstances and which will be used in…

  • Full and Final Settlement in Separation Agreements or Judicial Separation-A 2nd Bite of the Cherry in Divorce?

    Does a ‘full and final settlement’ in a deed of separation or on Consent Terms in a judicial separation actually mean what it says? In other words, can either party get a ‘second bit of the cherry’ at the time of divorce? Firstly, the Courts are obliged under section 20(3) of the Family Law (Divorce)…

  • The Family Home/Shared Home/Cohabiting Couples

    The Family Home Protection Act, 1976 prevents one spouse, in whose sole name the family home was vested, from dealing with the property without the knowledge and/or consent of the non-owning spouse. Note: The Family Home Protection act 1976 does not confer an interest in the property on the non owning spouse; it protects that…

  • The Non Marital Family in Irish Law-What You Need to Know About Guardianship, Access, Custody, Maintenance

    The Irish Constitution envisages the ‘family’ as one based on marriage alone. Clearly this leads to huge difficulties for the many non-marital families in Ireland. However it has been held that non marital children have the same ‘natural and imprescriptible rights’ as marital children under article 42 of the Constitution. Unlike the rights of the…

  • Declarations of Parentage and Paternity in Ireland

    The Status of Children Act, 1987 makes provision for declarations of parentage. This will involve an application to the Circuit Court that a person is his/her mother or father, even where the parent is dead. The Status of Children Act, 1987 also provides for blood tests including DNA testing, where parentage is in dispute, to…