Re L (leave to oppose making of adoption order) [2013] EWCA Civ 1481, [2013] All ER (D) 264 (Nov)
In a case under s 47 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002, the Court of Appeal remarked: “I would like to add a final few words of more general application than just this case. I am very conscious of the difficulties inherent in applications under s 47(5). The relationships and hopes of not just one family but two are imperilled and the material upon which the decision has to be taken is, of necessity, often far from complete and not infrequently has not been tested in a hearing with oral evidence. I have not intended in this judgment to be prescriptive as to the way in which such applications are handled by the expert family judges who resolve them with skill and sensitivity. Each case depends upon its own facts and the circumstances of individual cases vary infinitely. Where, for instance, a child has been placed with adopters for a protracted period, is well settled, and remembers nothing
