Dorothea Gartland reports on the courts’ attitude to section 38 assessment funding
The issue of funding assessments proposed under the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989), s 38(6) continues to cause difficulties for practitioners and the courts. Sheffield City Council v V (Legal Services Commission intervening) [2006] EWHC 1861 (Fam), [2006] Fam Law 833 is therefore particularly helpful to practitioners.
In Sheffield City Council the local authority successfully appealed the decision of the Family Proceedings Court which directed it to pay all the costs of a residential assessment. Instead the court directed that the costs of the assessment should be shared on a proportionate basis between the parties applying the Calderdale considerations (see Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council v S [2004] EWHC 2529 (Fam), [2004] All ER (D) 346 (Nov)).
Funding considerations
As practitioners will know, in Lambeth London Borough Council v S [2005] EWHC 776 (Fam), [2005] All ER (D) 341 (May) the court stated that the considerations identified by the court in Calderdale concerning the funding of a jointly-instructed expert report could equally apply to assessments under ChA 1989, s 38(6) in public law
