Litigation Letter
Child’s right to representation
Mabon v Mabon and others CA TLR 2 June
The courts must, in the case of articulate teenagers, accept that the rights to freedom of expression and participation in
family life outweigh the paternalistic judgement of welfare. There was a growing acknowledgement of the autonomy and consequential
rights of children. In our system a tandem model for the representation of children who were parties to family proceedings
had been traditionally adopted. First, the court appointed a guardian who instructed a specialist family solicitor who usually
instructed a specialist family barrister. That was a luxury model and was the envy of many other jurisdictions. However, its
overall approach was essentially paternalistic.