5 St Andrew’s Hill family team are looking forward to attending the Resolution National Conference in Brighton, where Gemma Lindfield will be speaking alongside Sadie Glover and Christina Warner on the growing legal and practical issues surrounding pets on separation.
The session will explore how family lawyers are increasingly dealing with disputes involving companion animals, including the complex intersection between pets, coercive control and domestic abuse.
Christina Warner’s work around Ruby’s Law has helped bring national attention to the role pets can play within abusive relationships and the legal protections currently available — and unavailable — for victim-survivors and their animals. The campaign seeks reforms to better recognise harm to, or threats involving, pets within domestic abuse protections. Ruby’s Law Campaign
Gemma and Sadie will also be discussing the current legal framework surrounding pets for both married and unmarried couples, including the reality that pets are still treated as chattels in England and Wales. The discussion will touch on the work of the Working Group on Pets on Divorce and Separation, as well as Sadie’s co-authored book with Estella Newbold-Brown which is the practitioners go to on the developing law in this area.
A very fitting topic for Resolution: constructive, forward-thinking family law that reflects the realities of modern family life and prioritises practical, non-confrontational solutions.
If you’re attending the conference, Gemma would be delighted to connect during the event.
For further information on the conference, please click here.
Gemma is an experienced family, extradition, criminal, and public law barrister with a particular focus on human rights. Gemma has been instructed in some of the most complex and high-profile extradition cases and is ranked in Chambers & Partners and The Legal 500.
To instruct Gemma, please contact Dean Farlam, our Senior Family Team Clerk on: E: deanfarlam@5sah.co.uk T: 020 7332 5405
