Family dilemmas

In her latest Gresham College lecture, Baroness Deech, chariman of the Bar Standards Board, asked why English law seems to prefer “the idle sexual partner over the deserving family member”.

She also questioned why cohabitants have a claim under inheritance laws while a caring daughter or sister does not and proposed that adults should be prepared to maintain their parents or their grandparents in return for the keep that was extended to them in their youth.

However, family lawyer Meredith Thompson, senior solicitor at Mills & Reeve, criticised the proposals: “The idea that grandparents should somehow be rewarded for assisting with childcare would simply place a further burden on families working to support their children and themselves.

“We already have a legal obligation to support our spouse or civil partner, as well as our children. Extending that to other family members would potentially create a messy web of financial interdependency and yet more litigation.”