The Court of Appeal has today (26 July 2024) handed down an important ‘modern families’ judgment, P v Q and F (Child: Legal Parentage) [2024] EWCA Civ 878.
The judgment upheld the first instance decision of Mrs Justice Gwynneth Knowles, which had ruled that where no finding could be made that a child was conceived by artificial insemination, the court must rely on the common law, and not the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008, to establish legal parentage.
In the judgment, the Court of Appeal clarified important foundational principles of common law parentage, the status of birth certificates and birth registration, as well as the proper approach when faced with an application for a Declaration of Parentage where the method of conception is in dispute.
James Turner KC, leading Naomi Wiseman and Joseph Landman, instructed by Anest Mathias of TV Edwards, successfully represented the First Respondent.
The judgment, can be found here.
James Turner KC
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Naomi Wiseman
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Joseph Landman
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