Mother wins right to sue agency

A woman has won a groundbreaking High Court ruling over child maintenance payments.

A judge ruled the Child Support Agency (CSA) can be sued for damages under human rights laws if it unreasonably fails to act against a parent who is refusing to pay child maintenance.

Friday's ruling was won by Mary Kehoe, 36, formerly from Amersham, Buckinghamshire, and now living in Spain, who says her ex-husband still owes her thousands of pounds.

Family legal experts said they expect the decision, if upheld on appeal, could have "a huge impact in practical terms".

Failure to establish right

But, even though she won the right to sue, Mrs Kehoe, a mother of four, was disappointed because she failed in her major aim.

This was to establish the right for divorced or separated parents caring for children to go to court themselves to enforce maintenance payments.

Lawyers for Mrs Kehoe said during a court hearing in February that she had suffered severely and been left struggling to bring up her children because of the CSA's failure to force her ex-husband to make payments.

Mr Drabble contended Article 6 of the convention, protecting a person's right of access to the courts, was being breached by the 1991 Child Support Act.

'Finely balanced' issue

The Act says that the CSA ensures payments are made and bars parents from going to court.

The judge Mr Justice Wall recognised the case raised "a finely balanced point of public importance" but said that UK law did not breach the Human Rights Act.

This is because UK law allowed parents like Mrs Kehoe to seek judicial review and claim damages under the 1998 Human Rights Act.

Because of the importance of the case, the judge gave the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions permission to appeal against his ruling to the Court of Appeal.

If the appeal fails, Mrs Kehoe will be free to sue for damages - but only for losses suffered through any CSA negligence after the Human Rights Act came into force in October 2000.