Urgency in child abduction cases

The Court of Appeal has stated that courts, judges and lawyers needed to be aware of the pressing time limits in cases involving allegations of child abduction. The court of trial had to complete the process within six weeks and once a judgment had been sent to counsel in draft, there should only be a brief period in which to draft the consequential order. In Re M (Child Abduction: Delay) (2007) The Times, August 28, the judge heard the case on 21 May 2007 and, 'reasonably' emailed his conclusions to counsel on 25 May 2007: 'It was quite unacceptable that the sealed order giving expression to that judgment was not dated until 21 June'. For more information see November [2007] International Family Law.