Child Maintenance: The New LawRoger Bird and David BurrowsJordans, £45
In the face of strident efforts by the legal profession to restore to courts the power to deal with child support – both consensually and non-consensually – the government has so far presented a deaf ear. The consequence is that administrative assessment within the Child Support Agency will remain, but will be carried out under a revised 2008 regime.

In June 2008, the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act became law, and Bird and Burrows examine in detailed and helpful text the background and general principles of the new law and the procedure covering all relevant issues, such as obtaining maintenance calculations, how child support is calculated and special cases and variations.

This is the fifth edition of Bird’s book and he has been ably joined by Burrows, who has contributed to the chapters on revisions and supersessions, enforcement and appeals. The book is divided in equal measure to text and statute, including schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989, to which the title refers. The book would be a useful addition to any family law library shelf.

Child Case Management PracticeEdited by The Hon Mr Justice Ryder and Iain Goldrein QCJordans, £95
This book does not represent itself as a competitor or substitute for other textbooks or procedural guides – it holds itself out as a new handbook for the busy practitioner and judge, designed to provide core skeleton arguments for the most common – and some less common – children applications.

It provides a comprehensive understanding and explanation of all issues that concern applications for both public law and private law Children Act matters, including public funding.

It contains extensive information on public law applications, and it sets out the provisions and applications under Special Guardianship Orders and child abduction, emergency protection and adoption.

Overall, the book succeeds in its own description as a valuable source to refresh the memory or inform the reader, identifying essential legal questions so that they can be applied to an analysis of facts and lead to the identification for the court of the key issues on which a decision is needed.