Problem Questions

Family Law Practice Problems
General Feedback and Sample Answer

GENERAL FEEDBACK

The following provides some general feedback on the answers to the practice problems. It should be read in conjunction with the specific feedback on your answer which I emailed to you. If you submitted an answer but have not yet received feedback from me, let me know as soon as possible.

  * Many people included a general introduction to their answers. This often repeated the facts from the problem and made no contribution to actually answering the question. Remember, you should approach a problem question as if you are offering a client advice – the client would not want to hear a summary of their own situation, they would want to know how the law actually applied to them.
  * In the same vein, many people also wrote overall conclusions to their answers. There is no need to write a conclusion summarising how you think the law applies. Your conclusions within the body of the answer themselves are sufficient.
  * If a question has a part (a) and part (b) (as problem 2 did) then your answer really should be broken up into parts (a) and (b) too.
  * There was considerable confusion regarding the functions of the Law Reform (Parent and Child) (Scotland) Act 1986 and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Section 5 of the 1986 Act is concerned with parental status ie. who is the legal father of the child. It has nothing to do with parental responsibilities and rights. The 1995 Act tells us who has PR&R and how this can be varied. It has nothing to do with whether someone is the legal mother or father of a child.
  * When discussing parentage, a man only has to be married to the mother of the child at any time between conception and birth. He doesn’t need to be married to her both at conception AND at birth.
  * Presumption has a specific legal meaning, which is not the same as saying a man is ‘considered’ or ‘labelled’ a child’s father. Make sure you use the correct...