David Sharp

Profile

David Sharp specialises in family law with an emphasis on cohabitation disputes (including the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996), matrimonial finance and children.

He has been involved in several high profile national news cases and a number of other cases at the forefront of legal developments in the family field.

David has been in private practice at the Bar in England and Wales for over 20 years, specialising for the last 12 years in family law.  

He also has a wealth of practical experience in relation to the realities of family life, having been married for 16 years and having five children, aged between two and 15 years.

Experience

Matrimonial Finance

David has conducted a large number of multi-million pound cases, dealing with assets including complicated offshore and discretionary trust arrangements, share option schemes, large scale property portfolios, farms and even a medieval priory.
David handled the Mareva proceedings in the case of Clark v Clark which became front page news in the national press.
David also represented the estate of Chigusa Maeda Turner, whose murder by her husband, in Venezuela, also made national news. In the civil murder case he obtained the highest recorded award for funeral expenses of over £50,000.

Cohabitation Disputes
David has advised and/or represented clients in well over 50 cases concerning the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996, a significant number also involving proceedings under Schedule 1 of The Children Act 1989. He has only had one adverse result in all this time, which he hopes one day to get over!

Children
David has acted for many years for local authorities and parents in public law proceedings, being involved in a number of important guideline cases and dealing with serious and complex sexual and physical abuse allegations and cases involving the inherent jurisdiction, child abduction and international adoptions.
David also acts in private cases specialising in leave to remove from the jurisdiction. He has among others dealt with relocation to France, Spain, Ireland, USA, Australia, Morocco, Canada, Tanzania, Cyprus, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Israel. Instability in the country concerned did not prevent David securing leave (examples include the last three countries mentioned).

Significant Cases

Re C [2006- 2007]
This was a seven-week hearing of extreme allegations of sexual abuse by parents, siblings and several associates, followed by a three-week disposal hearing. The higher civil standard of proof under Re H (Minors) (Child Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) [1996] AC 563 sub nom Re H & R (Child Sexual Abuse: Standard of Proof) [1996] 1 FLR 80 HL was not necessary to make a positive finding that no sexual abuse had occurred

Re K & H [2006] EWCA Civ 1898
Children are not to be removed from parents under an interim care order unless it was in the interests of their safety and a high standard had to be met and applied

Case Name: Confidential [2005] High Court
A four-week High Court case involving an application by a Local Authority, under the inherent jurisdiction, to protect children, under a care order, by an injunction excluding a sexual abuser from a zone covering half of England

Case Name: Confidential [2004]
Injunction and contact proceedings reported in the national news regarding a father who claimed to be on hunger strike, because he was being denied contact to his child

Re M (A child) 6/2/2003 LTL AC9500955
The client was a father seeking external relocation to Israel. The town he wished to move to was in the national news at the time of the main hearing when an Israeli robot restrained a local teenage suicide bomber. The father nevertheless was given leave to remove his seven-year old daughter. In the subsequent Court of Appeal proceedings, when upholding the decision to grant leave, the Court also decided that fixing a date by which the permanent leave to remove must be exercised was desirable, but not always mandatory.  The Court of Appeal also gave guidelines on security for contact.

In the Estate of Chigusa Maeda Turner Deceased APIL [2002] 12/4 30

The case concerned Mareva Proceedings and a civil action for a murder in Venezuela. The client was the estate of the Japanese wife suing her English husband. Damages included the highest reported award for funeral expenses, at over £50,000.

Clark v Clark [1999] 2 FLR 498
Dealt with the Mareva Proceedings in this high profile national news case, involving the short marriage of much younger woman to a multi-millionaire husband in his 70s

Hertfordshire County Council v W [1993] 1 FLR 118
Magistrates Courts must give written reasons for their decisions regarding interim care orders

In the Media

August 2000, Issue 560  Family Law Journal published an article from David entitled 'Paternity Testing – Time to Update the Law' on the need to update the law to take into account scientific advancements (the necessary reforms soon followed). 

August 2001, Issue 606 Family Law Journal published an article from David entitled 'Parental Responsibility – Where Next?' which analysed the law relating to parental responsibility and proposals for reform.

Memberships

Member, Family Law Bar Association

Qualifications

MA (Hons) Oxon, Modern History
Open Exhibitioner St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University
Diploma in Law, City University
Middle Temple Benefactors Law Scholar
Bar Finals (highest category awarded at the time)