Authoritative, comprehensive, practical and written by two leading child lawyers, advised by a board of eminent child law experts, Hershman and McFarlane: Children Law and Practice is firmly established as the leading reference work on the subject.

Conceived and written around the Children Act 1989 the work is regularly commended for its user-friendly approach and for concentrating on the issues that really matter in both public and private law. Clear narrative is complemented by numerous time-saving checklists, procedural tables and flow-charts. Relevant statutory materials are included and the whole work is extensively cross-referenced.

Used by all sectors of the profession including solicitors, the judiciary, barristers, local authorities and social services, this work is relied upon daily in all levels of court. Here's why:

• Authoritative Commentary
  Detailed and practical advice is written by The Hon Mr Justice McFarlane and Madeleine Reardon, Barrister
• Easy-to-Use Layout
  Flow-charts, checklists and procedural tables take you step-by-step through all the procedures relevant to your application
• Comprehensive Legislation
  Includes all the relevant statutes and statutory materials
• Frequent and Economical Updating Service
  To keep pace with all of the latest changes in this important area of practice the work is updated three times a year
• Portable Core Narrative Binder
  This binder contains all the essential procedural narrative that you need to take to court, which along with Hershman and McFarlane: Children Act Handbook, makes the perfect portable library of practical information for court proceedings
• FREE Hershman and McFarlane Children Act Handbook 2010/11
  Includes a free copy of Hershman and McFarlane: Children Act Handbook, published annually, providing a single volume source of key legislation and guidance materials.

NEW FOR 2011

Fully revised and restructured to take account of the impact of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 and supplementary Practice Directions

2012 SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

4 volume loose-leaf
£515 main work inc mainland UK p&p £25 overseas postage
3 updates per year (annual subscription November – October approx £383.00)

The late David Hershman QC and The Rt Hon Lord Justice McFarlane

Editor in Chief:
The Rt Hon Sir Alan Ward, Lord Justice of Appeal

Update Editors:
The Rt Hon Lord Justice McFarlane and Madeleine Reardon, Barrister, 1 King's Bench Walk

The new Division designation is as follows (the four main narrative divisions remain unchanged at A to D except that the previous Division J on Guardianship has now been added to the end of Division A):

Binder 1

Tables
Division A Parental Responsibility and Guardianship
Division B Private Law Proceedings
Division C Public Law Proceedings
Division D Adoption
Division E Appeals and Judicial Review

Index

Binder 2

Division F Local Authority Responsibility
Division G Child Abduction and Injunctions
Division H Fostering and Family Placement
Division I Non-Statutory Materials

Binder 3

Division J Statutes

Binder 4

Division K Statutory Instruments

"Children Law and Practice does stand out in our view with regard to ease of use, reference, range, thoroughness and 'user-friendliness'"
Civil Justice Quarterly

"Straightforward and readable. The flow-charts, tables and checklists are particularly good"
Practitioners' Child Law Bulletin

"Definitive and practical ... all those concerned with the care and welfare of children will find it immensely valuable"
The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Brown

Update 61 (November 2011)

In addition to regular updating to reflect the flow of statutory and case-law, the text has been fully amended to reflect the following: 

• The following new regulations have been incorporated where relevant throughout the text:
  
  • the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010;
  • the Arrangements for Placement of Children by Voluntary Organisations and Others (England) Regulations 2011;
  • the Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011;
  • the Arrangements for Placement of Children by Voluntary Organisations and Others (England) Regulations 2011; and
  • the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review (England) Regulations 2010.
• The important Court of Appeal decision on leave to remove from the jurisdiction (K v K (Relocation: Shared Care Agreement)).
• Re C (A Child) (Suspension of Contact) [2011] EWCA Civ 521 in which Munby LJ summarises the impact of ECHR case-law upon private law contact disputes.

Hershman and McFarlane Children Law and Practice is also available online as part of the Family Law Online Service. Why have Family Law Online?

• Compatible with mobile devices (iPad, iPhone, Android phones and select Blackberry) – carry Family Law Online with you
• Create PDFs – generate PDF versions of on-screen content to print from, download or store offline
• Case referred to - find where a particular case has been referred to in subsequent judgements
• Improved search engine – indexing, hyperlinks and search filters to get you to the information you need quicker than ever before
• Customise your service – mix and match Family Law modules (journals, reports and major works) or subscribe to the entire service ... it’s up to you!

Plus Hershman and McFarlane Children Law and Practice Online offers:

• Specimen forms - view full forms not reproduced in the print version
• Hyper-text links to Family Law Reports cases
• In-house Professional Support Lawyer updates - continuous updating of the major works with developments such as judgment summaries, new legislation and new Practice Directions inserted at relevant points in the text 

all this and much more ...

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Foreword

The authors, who are practising barristers, have produced a truly comprehensive work on the law and practice relating to children. It is both definitive and practical. Lawyers, both practising and academic, social workers, guardians ad litem and all of those concerned with the care and welfare of children will find it immensely valuable. Its publication, which coincides with the implementation of the Children Act 1989, marks an outstanding contribution to the development of family law.

The Rt Hon Sir Stephen Brown President of the Family Division
September 1991

Preface

Our aim in writing this book has been to provide a clear, detailed and comprehensive analysis of the law relating to children. The text is intended to be as ‘user friendly’ and accessible as possible, while remaining within the confines of a book which is also easily portable. The advent of the Children Act 1989 and the new court rules has led us to approach the arrangement of the text in a way which does not make a bold distinction between the private and the public law relating to children. Consequently, Division C considers all orders with respect of children (both private and public) and Division D considers all the relevant procedure. It is our hope that this method of organising the material not only reflects the fresh approach generated by the Children Act 1989, but also presents the text in a useful way for practitioners. We have been extremely fortunate in having a consulting editor and advisory editors who have made themselves available to us at no small cost to their own free time and family life. In the early stages, the sage advice of Sir Alan Ward as consulting editor, was particularly helpful in defining the scope of the work and the way in which the material within it should be organised. Thereafter, he has been a source of detailed advice and constructive criticism from which the book has greatly benefited. Our two advisory editors, Clive Major and Paul Evans, have read and reread the draft text and commented upon it in detail, both on paper and at a series of very enjoyable Saturday meetings. It is no exaggeration to say that it is unlikely that there is a page in this work which has not benefited in some way from an alteration suggested by either Clive or Paul. Their contributions have been directed to ensuring that not only is the law correctly stated, but also that it is stated in a clear and accessible fashion.We are grateful to them, and to their families, for their commitment to this project.

Throughout the development of this book we have enjoyed working very closely with the staff of Jordans. During this three-year period their advice and guidance on matters both of technical detail and of substance have been of great value from first to last. A sign of their achievement is the publication of this major and complex work by 14 October 1991, despite the fact that many of the Statutory Instruments and court rules which are referred to in the text were only published during the last few weeks.

We are very grateful to Sir Stephen Brown, The President of the Family Division, for agreeing to write a Foreword.We have been encouraged by his interest and support in the book over the past three years.

With the writing of this Preface, the book has now ‘gone to press’. The greatest contribution by far to the fact that we have reached this stage has been made by our respective families and, in particular, our wives, Abi and Susanna. They have become single parents and ‘word-processor widows’ to the extent that it is hard now to remember what normal family life was like before we started typing. Despite all the strain and stress, Abi and Susanna have never wavered in their support for us. For all that they have done, we are more grateful than it is polite to express in the Preface to a formal textbook.

David Hershman and Andrew McFarlane
Priory Chambers, Birmingham
September 1991

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From Update 39

David Hershman QC died suddenly on 4 September 2004 at the age of 45 years. His contribution to the practice of the law relating to children over the past 20 years has been great as an adviser, an advocate, a lecturer and latterly as a deputy High Court Judge. It is, however, his work upon this book, Children Law and Practice, which has the most significance and is likely to become his enduring legacy to current and future family lawyers.

In 1988 David and I, then junior barristers in Priory Chambers, Birmingham, had written three short articles for the Family Law Journal and thought that a small textbook was within the scope of our talents. The aim was to provide a detailed practitioner’s text on care proceedings, similar in depth to a work, which we much admired, by Nigel Lowe and Richard White on ‘Wards of Court’. It was only after we had been signed up by Jordans to produce a book that the Children Bill was published and the scales were lifted from our eyes by our Editor-in-chief, Sir Alan Ward. We realised that it would no longer be possible to write a discrete text solely on ‘Care Proceedings’ and with stunning naivety we agreed that we would deliver a book covering the entire gamut of child law. We then went out and bought an Amstrad PC each and started to learn how to type!

David brought many things to our partnership. During the period of writing the text, David’s dynamic approach to the scale of the task before us was crucial. He was undaunted by the amount of work required. There was never any doubt in his mind that the book would be completed and completed on time, no matter how much graft was required to achieve this goal. The result was that the book was published on 14 October 1991, the day that the Children Act 1989 was implemented.

In the 13 years since publication, David and I have continued to work together writing each of the thrice-yearly updates, advised by our indispensable band of consulting editors. We also worked closely together in our professional life and through many lecturing engagements. Because of the way in which the Bar is structured, such a close and enduring working relationship is a rare and special thing.

We were engaged in a joint adventure and we were, above all, great friends. I was a lucky man to have experienced such a friendship. David’s death has occurred during the preparation for ‘Update 39’, which marks the long-planned reorganisation of the book into three volumes. He had played a full part in achieving these changes.

Looking to the future, the authorship of Children Law and Practice will now be my sole responsibility, however, such was the close and intuitive nature of our collaboration that in a real sense I will feel that the task is a continuation of our partnership.

Andrew McFarlane QC
One Kings Bench Walk, London
October 2004

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From Update 60

The issue of Update 60 marks two major milestones for Children Law and Practice in the lead-up to the book’s 20th anniversary in October 2011. The first milestone relates to content. The coming into force of the Family Procedure Rules 2010 has required a comprehensive updating of the whole work to remove reference to the previous provisions and to integrate the new Rules and Practice Directions fully within the narrative. The text that is now issued is fully up to date with the new procedural provisions as at 6 April 2011 and reflects the substantive law as at 1 February 2011.

The second milestone relates to structure. In 2004, when the work moved into three volumes, the aim was that Binder 1 would contain the four main narrative divisions and the core statutes and statutory instruments. This was always an adventurous goal and the volume of material soon rendered it impossible to maintain.

The sequence of divisions had, however, been organised to achieve this move. The result was that the core statutory material became oddly marooned at the beginning of Binder 2 before the remainder of the narrative. The need to reissue much of the work in this Update has provided the opportunity to regularise the sequence of divisions and to reorder the work into four, rather than three, binders. This has necessitated renumbering the divisions from Division E onwards. We hope that subscribers will find the new layout more straightforward.

Andrew McFarlane and Madeleine Reardon
April 2011