Rachel Francis, led by Laura Briggs KC, successfully represented the father in a complex age dispute fact finding hearing in care proceedings concerning the child, ‘P’. P asserted that she was 18 years old, making her an adult, not 16 years old, her registered age and that maintained by her parents. Determination of this issue was critical to the Court’s jurisdiction to hear the case, the child’s identity and the credibility of the parties.

The Court found in favour of the father (and mother), placing significant weight on authenticated birth certificate and identity documents, and upon the expert evidence confirming their genuineness. The Court found no credible evidence to establish the documents for P contained false information.

This is an important case in which the Court applied the established principle that age is a question of objective fact to be determined on the balance of probabilities, not by placing any burden on P.

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Rachel was instructed by Miles & Partners LLP.