Judge's ruling on claim for Madeleine

I will reserve my judgement until I receive responses to this request.
First of all, I have now established that the McCanns' claim on behalf of Madeleine was actually 500,000 euros - much more than I'd remembered. I will say more about this in a moment.

Before answering your question (which I've only just seen), 'stillsloppingout', it is necessary to explain a few basic things about Wardship Proceedings, a legal procedure I've been involved in professionally many times in the past, both as a child care social worker, and later, as a solicitor.

Before doing so, it is necessary to say, once again, that in so many respects this case is wholly unique, so when, SSO, you refer to 'usual practice', there is no 'usual practice' in a case like this.

The basic purpose of making a child a Ward of Court (i.e. taking Wardship Proceedings, as the McCanns did) - or a Ward of the High Court to be precise - is to give the Court a range of extra powers in the interests of the child's welfare.

A common example would be where a parent refuses a medical procedure which is necessary for the child's health or life: e.g. Jehovah's Witness parents refusing a life-saving blood transfusion. The High Court steps in and orders the transfusion where the parents have refused.

Another basic principle where a child is a Ward of Court is that nobody - whether parent or anybody else - may take any significant step on behalf of the child without first getting the permission of the High Court.

And this may be one of the things that is exercising Dr Amaral and the Lisbon Civil Court. As far as I can ascertain, Amaral's lawyer has asked a simple question of the High Court: did the McCanns ask permission of the High Court before making their libel claim on Madeleine's behalf in June 2009? I think the answer to that is probably: 'No'.

Madeleine's £500,000 claim was deleted from the sum demanded by the mcCannns.

This is an extract from mcannfiles ...I did look here to see if it was already posted , couldn't find anything. this will p*** the McCanns off.