Hong Kong Case Law: Decisions & Judgments

Topic

Costs orders in children proceedings

Legal area

Court

10 Jan 2025

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE (in his capacity as the Central Authority designated under the Child Abduction and Custody Ordinance, Cap. 512) v. YWG AND ANOTHER

Citation

[2025] HKCFI 250
Court

Court of First Instance
Case number

HCMP2311/2024

The court exercised its wide discretion on costs, found no exceptional circumstances to depart from the general practice of no order as to costs because the mother's conduct was explainable by legal advice, the alleged additional costs were not shown to be unreasonable or caused by inadmissible evidence, and the change of stance did not delay the ultimate return order; therefore no order as to costs was made.
31 Mar 2023

LCH v. WPSN

Citation

[2023] HKFC 64
Court

Family Court
Case number

FCMC1936/2020

On the evidence including the Social Investigation Report and children’s expressed wishes, the Petitioner pursued a hopeless and unsubstantiated bid to change both children’s schools for reasons of convenience and without demonstrable benefit to the children; his conduct (including unilateral enrolment and insincere mediation) went beyond the band of reasonable litigation in children proceedings; given his greater resources, a costs order against him was justified; accordingly Petitioner must pay Respondent’s costs of the Schooling Summons and of the costs application.
15 Dec 2014

TPL v. WYY formerly known as WYY

Citation

TPL v. WYY formerly known as WYY
Court

Court of Appeal
Case number

CACV47/2014

In children proceedings the starting point is no order as to costs; a limited and proportionate departure is justified where a party’s conduct is materially reprehensible (here the father's deliberate non‑disclosure of his girlfriend and imminent newborn who would reside with the children). It was irrelevant and impermissible for the judge to base a costs order on the fact that the mother was legally aided. Accordingly the original costs orders were set aside and replaced with proportionate orders: no order as to costs generally, but the father must pay half of the costs of the hearing in the…

Hong Kong Case Law

SECRETARY FOR JUSTICE (in his capacity as the Central Authority designated under the Child Abduction and Custody Ordinance, Cap. 512) v. YWG AND ANOTHER

LCH v. WPSN

TPL v. WYY formerly known as WYY