Inger Blackford
Inger Blackford is a senior family law barrister based in central Auckland, NZ. Inger has more than 26 years' experience in the field of family law and went to the independent bar in 2006. Inger was formerly a Senior Solicitor at Russell McVeagh and an Associate at McVeagh Fleming. Inger has practiced general family law in NZ and Child Care and Youth Justice law Oxford (UK).
Inger is a member of the panel of lawyers approved to undertake work for the Central Authority (Ministry of Justice) in relation to applications under the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction & for the International Recovery of Maintenance. Appointed as a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers in 2018.
Inger served as a trustee of an anti-truancy trust based in West Auckland, and was a former member of the Care & Protection Resource Panel for the Department of Child Youth and Family. Inger served as Co-Chair of the Family Law & Family Rights Section of LAWASIA and has been a member of their Family Law & Family Rights Committee (NZ representative) since 2005. Inger was a member of the International Family Law Issues Standing Committee for the Family Law Section of the NZLS for more than 3 years and served as convenor for the Committee. Inger is originally from Australia (QLD) but undertook her legal studies in New Zealand. Inger retains strong ties to Australia and is a member of the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.
Inger regularly attends and speaks at both domestic and international conferences and has chaired conferences for Lexis Nexis. Inger has attended conferences in Singapore, London, Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Canberra and was an invited speaker at LAWASIA's Family Law Conference in Cambodia in 2011 where she presented a paper on Shared Parenting.
Areas of Practice
Inger specialises in all areas of family law including but not limited to;
- Relationship property (including those cases with complex dimensions such as trusts, companies and overseas property). Inger regularly drafts and advises on "pre-nuptial" and settlement agreements between couples (Section 21 Agreements) and the filing of applications in court for the division of relationship property.
- Care of children, day-to-day care, guardianship and contact including relocation both domestically/internationally and schooling disputes.
- Child Support, including advice on drafting applications for Administrative Review. Inger is experienced in filing appeals to the Family Court on Child Support matters.
- Estate litigation/family protection
- Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, Inger undertakes representation for litigants via the Central Authority but will also take private instructions from litigants faced with an application to return under the Hague Convention.
- Adoption/Surrogacy
- Spousal maintenance & International Recovery of Maintenance
- Lawyer for the child (court appointments under both the Care of Children Act 2004)
Professional memberships
- New Zealand Law Society
- Family Law section of the New Zealand Law Society
- International Bar Association
- LAWASIA
- Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia
- New Zealand Bar Association
- Appointed as a Fellow of the International Academy of Family Lawyers in 2018
Publications
Inger's publications and presentations include the following;;
- Submission presenter for NZLS to Parliamentary Justice & Electoral Select Committee re: Child & Family Protection Bill
- Chair of Lexis Nexis Child Law Conference April 2010
- Court appointed Lawyer for Child qualified
- Court appointed Counsel to Assist qualified
- Speaker at the Lexis Nexis Child Law Conference 2006 "Judicial Interpretations of Day-to-Day Care and Contact"
- Speaker at the Lexis Nexis Family Law Advocacy Skills 2004 "Discovering the Evidence"
- Speaker at the Lexis Nexis Property Relationships Masterclass 2006 "Knowing Your Clients Rights and Remedies - Trusts and Companies"
- Speaker at the New Zealand Law Society Family Law Conference 2005 "International Property Issues".
- Speaker at the LAWASIA 4th Children & The Law Conference May 2011 in Siem Reap Cambodia "Joint Parenting"
- Speaker at the LexisNexis conference "Examining the Family Court Review" October 2012
- International Travel Child Consent Agreement – The answer to all your travel woes? (The Family Advocate – NZLS) Volume 15, Issue 1.
- Presenter at the ADLS seminar "Examining the Family Court Review†2012
- Presenter at the Ministry of Justice forum of Hague Convention lawyers "Practical operation of the Convention: the New Zealand and Australian Experience"-Wellington 2015
- "What's going on in Australia with the Hague Convention?"-published in the Family Advocate (NZLS) volume 17, issue 2, November 2015
- Presenter at the NZLS Asylum and Refugee Forum – "Refugees and the Hague Convention" June 2016
- "Refugee Applicants and Hague Convention-published in the Family Advocate (NZLS) volume 17, issue 4, June 2016
- Presenter at the Ministry of Justice forum of Hague Convention lawyers "The Hague Convention and Immigration Issues" July 2017
- Chair of the Legalwise Litigation and Disputes Programme (Family Law)-March 2020
- Presenter at the ADLS seminar on "Notices of Claim and Caveats"-June 2020
- Chair of the Legalwise "Family Law Drafting†webinar-August 2020
- Presenter at the ADL S Family Law Conference "Trusts and Relationship Property"-November 2020
- Presenter at the ADL S Family Law Conference "What Happens if it all Breaks Down?"-November 2020
Inger is available to take instructions on a broad range of family law issues and works with a number of firms of solicitors who regularly brief her on matters. Inger's terms and conditions of engagement are available upon request.