Family Law

The fair deal process and applications of diminished capacity.Applications for financial support can be made to help pay for the cost of care in a nursing home through the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, also known as the Fair Deal scheme. Under Fair Deal, you pay a certain amount towards the cost of your care and the HSE pays the rest.When an application is made, the individuals care needs must be assessed by the HSE to confirm that long-term nursing home care is the most appropriate option. Furthermore, the financial situation is also assessed by the HSE to see how much each [...]

This article will highlight some of the main differences between the rights afforded to couples in a civil partnership and couples who are married. Particular attention will be given to the report published by Marriage Equality Ireland entitled ‘Missing Pieces’ , which audited the main differences between the rights and responsibilities gained from civil partnership compared to the rights and responsibilities gained through civil marriage in Ireland. While civil partnership does confer similar rights to those afforded to opposite-sex married couples, civil partnership is not equal to marriage. Within the legislation there are salient differences which ‘promote inequality and discrimination’ toward [...]

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services such as mediation, collaborative law and conciliation have consistently been found to be more suitable for certain types of family law issues than our current court system. It has been argued that “the adversarial nature of proceedings does little to resolve conflict in families’ lives but rather compounds and increases that conflict in many cases”. ADR processes on the other hand, give disputants “full control over the outcome of the process which is not always possible in a public, formal and adversarial justice system”. It has been asserted that ADR could greatly alleviate the problems concerning [...]

The 2011 census found that there were 143,600 cohabiting coupes in Ireland. This growing number of couples who chose to live together outside of marriage provided the impetus for reform. Cohabitation in Ireland is governed under the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 it established a presumptive scheme (with the option to 'opt out') of unmarried unregistered cohabitants whether same or opposite sex. Prior to the 2010 Act cohabitants had relatively zero legal recognition. A qualified cohabitant is defined as an adult who was living with the other adult as a couple for a period of [...]

Divorce in Ireland In November 1995, Ireland voted to remove the constitutional ban on divorce, with the YES campaign sweeping a narrow 51% victory. So, 20 years later, what have been the effects of that decision? Contrary to the fears of the NO campaign, the Irish are slow to divorce demonstrated by the lowest rate of divorce in the EU and third lowest in the world. People in their 20s and 30s have grown up with the option of divorce, yet people continue to marry in large numbers. The statistics - In 2012, the marriage rate was 4.6%; this is higher [...]

Family mediation is a process in which those involved in family breakdown, whether or not they are a couple or other family members, appoint an impartial third person to assist them to communicate better with one another and reach their own agreed and informed decisions concerning some or all of the issues relating to separation, divorce, children, finance or property by negotiation. Mediation is short term unlike counselling and therapy which may be long term. An initial information meeting is offered to each parent separately to explain mediation and other sources of help, and consider ways forward. If both parents or [...]

Enduring Powers are concerned with the care of a person and the management of their assets during the lifetime should they become mentally incapable of managing their own affairs. In completing an Enduring Power of Attorney, a person appoints an Attorney to look after his or her affairs if such an eventuality should arise. The person making the Enduring Power of Attorney can decide what powers the Attorney will have. These may include powers to deal with personal care decisions only or to deal with all aspects of the Donors affairs should the need arise. The Enduring Power of Attorney has [...]