Dr Proudman represented a teenage girl in her fight to be reunited with her mother

Dr Charlotte Proudman, founder and in-house at Proudmans, represented a teenage girl in what is believed to be the first private family law case where a child uses her own representation to return to her mother.

This story was reported in The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Florence was ten when she was removed from her mother’s home. This was a result of her father, a man found to be abusive, making claims of “parental alienation” against her mother. The teenager spent the next five years in a battle to reverse court orders, disempowered by a system forcing her to live with a man she said frightened her.

Florence’s story highlights the dangers of the concept of “parental alienation”. It silences children who disclose abuse. “Parental alienation” was a threat looming over her, preventing her from saying how she really felt about her parents. 

Dr Proudman said “Florence was in every sense an exceptional case. First, the court told her she had no say as to which parent she lived with. Then it told her that she had no right to challenge its decision."

After years of rejected court applications, Florence, aged 15, asked her solicitor to bring Dr Proudman on to her case to take to appeal. The appeal was successful, and Florence was reunited with her mother. But if the courts had listened to Florence from the beginning, she would never have had to spend her childhood in this battle.

In her book about the family courts, He Said, She Said, Dr Proudman described Florence as “one of the most remarkable clients I have represented.”