LegallyNik

LegallyNik Trauma Informed Child Protection Lawyer 👩🏻‍💼
Independent Mama of ✌️
Showing Law & Life ❤️
(4)

31/08/2026

When you’ve never wanted, asked for, engaged in or shown any real interest in having more time with your child… but the minute the primary carer applies for child maintenance, suddenly 50/50 becomes VERY important.

That should raise questions.

Because the first thought shouldn’t be:

“How can I reduce my child maintenance payments?”

It should be:

“What does my child need?”

What routine are they already in?
Who has historically provided the day-to-day care?
What arrangements give them stability and consistency?
And is increasing time genuinely about wanting to parent more — or about paying less?

Child maintenance is not a punishment for the paying parent. It is a financial contribution towards the costs of raising your child.

And equally, spending time with your child should never be treated as a financial calculation.

There are absolutely parents who genuinely want more time with their children and should be supported in that. This isn’t about them.

It’s about recognising that “I want to parent my child more” and “I want to pay less maintenance” are two very different motivations.

Children are not a discount code for child maintenance.

More time should be about the child. Not the calculation.

30/08/2026

When no one can compete with the loyalty and love from the women and babies in your life đź’•

Five possible verdicts. Five very different legal outcomes.After weeks of evidence, conflicting experts and more questio...
29/08/2026

Five possible verdicts. Five very different legal outcomes.

After weeks of evidence, conflicting experts and more questions than answers, I am left with reasonable doubt.

Now, we wait for the jury. ⚖️

This woman built an empire without pretending she didn’t care about looking feminine.She loved deeply without surrenderi...
26/08/2026

This woman built an empire without pretending she didn’t care about looking feminine.

She loved deeply without surrendering her independence.

She had a long marriage without making being someone’s wife her entire identity.

She didn’t become a mother, but never allowed womanhood to be defined by motherhood.

She was kind without being weak.

Ambitious without apology.

Feminine without making herself smaller.

And perhaps that’s the kind of feminism I relate to most.

Not telling women who they should be, but fiercely defending their right to decide for themselves.

Big hair. Big heels. Big heart. Big business.

As Dolly herself said:

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” 💛

I could write for days on this case.There are so many holes. But for where we are now, and for what this trial ultimatel...
22/08/2026

I could write for days on this case.

There are so many holes.

But for where we are now, and for what this trial ultimately comes down to, all I can say with certainty is that I am left with reasonable doubt. A lot of it.

Kevin Reddington has been masterful. Calm, compassionate, forensic and incredibly effective in the way he has presented Lindsay’s case.

The prosecution, for me, has demonstrated so much of what you want to avoid in both attitude and presentation. At times it has felt unnecessarily combative and dismissive, particularly when dealing with incredibly complex psychiatric evidence.

But bigger than the verdict, this case should force conversations that are LONG overdue.

About postpartum mental health.

About fragmented healthcare.

About what happens when women repeatedly ask for help but nobody joins the dots.

About the invisible load of motherhood.

And about how easily we judge a woman’s actions after catastrophe, instead of asking whether anybody truly heard her before it.

Three children lost their lives.

Nothing about having compassion for Lindsay changes that.

But after hearing this evidence, If this amount of uncertainty doesn’t constitute reasonable doubt, what does?

There is something about watching Kevin Reddington in this trial that goes beyond simply watching a very good lawyer.Yes...
18/08/2026

There is something about watching Kevin Reddington in this trial that goes beyond simply watching a very good lawyer.

Yes, his cross-examinations are brilliant. He catches the tiny details. He knows when one question is more powerful than twenty. He can take a piece of evidence that initially sounds incredibly damaging and, with a little context, make you look at it completely differently.

But actually, one of the things I’ve noticed most is how he treats his client.

In a case where Lindsay Clancy is probably one of the easiest people in America to dehumanise, he hasn’t.

The hand on her shoulder when she was emotional as the 911 call was played. The way he speaks to her. The way he has fought over seemingly small things that are actually about her dignity, privacy, physical disability and mental health, including challenging how she would be transported to court and trying to protect private conversations at the defence table.

And then I discovered this isn’t entirely new territory for him.

Back in 1989, Reddington represented Therese Rogers, a woman who had endured serious abuse from her partner. He successfully argued that the PTSD caused by that abuse rendered her temporarily insane when she unalived him, reportedly the first successful use of that argument in Massachusetts.

Decades later, he represented another woman in a case involving battered woman syndrome, arguing that she had acted to protect herself and her family.

It’s watching a lawyer who, after 50+ years in criminal defence, still seems capable of seeing the human being sitting next to him when the rest of the world may only see the allegation.

You don’t have to agree with his case.
You don’t have to agree with every argument he makes.
And you certainly don’t have to have decided what you think the verdict should be.

But you can recognise exceptional advocacy when you’re watching it.

The preparation. The instinct. The fight. And, perhaps most importantly, the humanity.

At 75.

Being a single parent can mean carrying 100% of the mental load while trying to make one household income stretch twice ...
17/08/2026

Being a single parent can mean carrying 100% of the mental load while trying to make one household income stretch twice as far. 🤍

And one thing I’ve learnt is that there can be financial support available that nobody actually sits you down and tells you about.

From Universal Credit and Child Benefit, to help with childcare costs, school expenses, housing, council tax and child maintenance, depending on your circumstances, there may be support you’re entitled to that you simply don’t know exists.

So I’ve pulled together some of the places worth checking if you’re parenting alone and feeling the financial pressure.

There is no shame in claiming support you’re entitled to. These systems exist for a reason.

Please share anything that iv missed to help others out!

Save this post for when you need it, and send it to another single parent who might not know where to start ❤️

Clare’s Law or officially the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, was introduced following the unaliving of Clare Wood ...
14/08/2026

Clare’s Law or officially the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, was introduced following the unaliving of Clare Wood in 2009. Clare’s former partner had a history of violence against women she had not known about.

Her father campaigned for change, and in 2014 Clare’s Law was rolled out across England and Wales.

It gives you a Right to Ask the police whether a current or former partner has a history that may indicate you are at risk, and allows police, under the Right to Know, to proactively disclose information where they believe someone may be at risk.

And people ARE using it.

You don’t need to wait until you have proof that something is wrong.

You can apply online through Police.uk, call 101, or visit a police station. The process is confidential and the person you are asking about is not ordinarily told that you have made the request.

A Clare’s Law application isn’t an accusation.

It’s information. It’s safeguarding. And it could change the choices you make.

Especially before bringing someone new into your children’s world. 💗

Save this. Share it. Someone might need to know it exists.

13/08/2026

If highlighted here what to think about before returning a matter back to court to consider a variation of the order.

The family is court is not a fan of repeated applications so I tend to advise people to store up and go back once, when it’s needed, like really needed!

Save for later x

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