I can tell from your IP address that you posted this article from Northern Ireland, which probably explains what happened in your ‘friends’ case.

My original point wasn’t that courts don’t award shared residence, as that pretty much goes without saying in nearly every court in Northern Ireland. Social workers (who mostly do the Welfare reports in Northern Ireland) don’t understand shared residence, and think that it means 50/50 shared care and nothing else. Question is are the social workers causing the Children Order case law to stagnate or are they merely mimicking the judiciary by opposing shared residence?

My original point was that the lawyer didn’t advise the mother that shared residence was an option even though it clearly was.

Really? Because a friend of mine picked his daughter up on Sunday mornings, back Monday mornings, picked her up Tuesdays evening, back Wednesday evenings, wanted more but this is all his wife would allow, and still lost. He now has a 7 hour round trip to pick her up and leave her back, every other weekend!!
He was told during the trial that if he didn’t want to continue it was fine- the judges had basically made up their minds- BEFORE he gave evidence!!

There is alot more things messed up in the courts than the decor.