Blog

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the important role that wider family members can have in the upbringing of children. The exemption in regulations for essential childcare has provided a lifeline for some families that are reliant on grandparents to look after children and continue to work. To many parents, grandparents are an invaluable source of support. However, sometimes children lose contact with their grandparents, often as a consequence of the parents separating and this has been particularly effected by the pandemic with lockdowns a feature of daily life. We have had numerous enquiries from grandparents who are struggling to maintain contact or communication with grandchildren in particular where their child is no longer the parent mainly living with their own children.

Lockdown can be challenging for most of us, but even more so if you are stuck in a relationship with somebody you no longer want to be with and want to end your marriage or cohabiting relationship. It may feel that there is no way to escape a lockdown breakup but Macnabs can help you make a start and put the wheels in motion.

 2020 has been a difficult year for everyone, with additional health concerns and financial stresses. This is particularly so for separated parents whose children go between two households in order to have a meaningful relationship with both of them. The Lord President, the most senior judge in Scotland, issued additional guidance on 18th November 2020 in relation to how existing contact orders should be operated and how parents can consider whether contact between a child and a parent should go ahead. With this in mind we've listed some points to consider below for parents' general guidance.

Coinciding with the lockdown imposed across the UK on the 23rd March, all Courts across Scotland were closed to routine business. Hub Courts were assigned for each Sheriffdom - across the ten Courts of Tayside, Central and Fife, only two hub Courts were designated, and those two Courts are dealing only with designated "emergency" business, for example dealing with those arrested and held in custody, and applications for protective orders for either person or property, where the solicitor has been able to satisfy the Court that there is sufficient urgency.   What this has meant is that all routine business, in every Court across Scotland, has been paused, and either sisted (frozen) or has been continued until late summer.