SGO and Name Changes
In re L (A Child) [2007] EWCA Civ 196
CA
Weekly Law Notes Summary
13 March 2007
A special guardianship order (“SGO”) was intended to provide foundations for a life-long relationship between a child and carer and to secure stability for the child to be cemented into a new family. However the power to order the child to be known by a new surname should not be exercised by the court if it would interfere with the child’s emotional identity needs. The Court of Appeal in a reserved judgment so held dismissing an appeal by grandparents of a three-year old child, E, from Black J who on 7 September 7 2006, having made a SGO in favour of the grandparents and ordered E’s occasional restricted contact with her mother, had refused permission for E’s surname to be changed to that of the grandparents.