Profile

• LLB (Newcastle)
• Called to the Bar 1982
• Member of FLBA
• Member of ALC

Lesley Tapson is a specialist family law practitioner who deals exclusively with cases involving children. She regularly represents local authorities, parents and children in the High Court, and County Courts.

PARTICULAR SPECIALISMS

The majority of Lesley’s practice is in the public law arena. She has extensive experience in sensitive and complex cases involving child protection issues including alleged sexual abuse and non accidental injuries of children. She also represents parents in private law residence and contact proceedings. She has lectured on the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on family law, and gives regular seminars to local authorities on the presentation of evidence.

REPORTED CASES OF INTEREST

Re C (Children)(Residential Assessment) [2001] EWCA Civ 1305
Relating to the challenge by a local authority to the suitability of a particular assessment centre. The court examined the basis upon which the authority had sought to challenge the selection of the particular centre and the sufficiency of the evidence upon which it relied at the original hearing.

Re ZM and OS (Sterilisation: Patient’s Best Interests) [2000] 1 FLR 523
Examining whether in the case of a sufferer of Down’s Syndrome (who was unable to give her own consent to medical treatment), a hysterectomy could lawfully be performed or whether an alternative intra-uterine device should be used instead.