Marilyn Stowe Blog

Transnational Pro Bono work

Our transnational work continues to grow- this week on consecutive days, our solicitors, Angela Stephenson and Frank Arndt successfully attended court in London in two separate jurisdiction cases. The whereabouts (or jurisdiction) of a divorce can often impact on the financial settlement between the divorcing couples because differing laws will be applied in different countries.

Our firm’s commitment to working pro bono (free of charge) in complicated cases where funding is not possible, is well known. This was recently applied in a transnational case, where a young mother had struggled to obtain good legal advice and representation to secure her children whom she was forced to leave behind in Germany when she returned to England for cancer treatment.

So I am proud to record the involvement of Frank Arndt, and our firm in this tragic transnational children case.

Frank is a German Rechtsanwalt and Partner in our firm. A fluent English, Dutch and German speaker he heads Stowe Family Law’s International department and is one of the very few family lawyers practising in England who has higher rights of audience in the Federal Court in Germany. In this case he represented a terminally ill young mother Carly Jones in a child custody case in Germany after she had seen literally scores of lawyers, first in Germany and then on her return to the UK all of whom proved unable to help her. Twenty-five year old Carly found Frank’s contact details through Reunite, a UK charity specialising in international children’s law issues, of which Mr Arndt is a member.

We agreed to act for her pro bono and Frank Arndt provided advice on the complicated childcare issues, representing Carly in the German courts, following which he successfully obtained an order that both children should travel to England to see their mother. German social services however refused to comply with the order and appealed.

After being fined €10,000 for not complying with the judge’s order, they still refused to comply with the decision. Sadly, Carly lost her fight with cancer days before the appeal hearing was scheduled to take place in court and only weeks after she had celebrated her 25th birthday.

The children’s maternal grandmother, Jean Jones, has now launched a campaign, Justice For Carly, to bring the children back to the UK – Carly’s dying wish.

The wider tragedy is that Carly’s plight is the tip of an iceberg, with the spread of transnational families across the globe. When such a relationship breaks down, the whole family could find itself unwittingly caught up in a nightmare struggle involving unfamiliar legal systems, laws, language – and outcome.

Related posts:

1. Stowe Family Law in The Times
2. Divorce overseas: ten steps to protect your children
3. Divorce and tax havens – by guest blogger Frank Arndt.
4. Work experience: a law student writes…