Posts
Day 2 of the legal blogging pilot – Attending as a non-practising solicitor, under the umbrella of the Transparency Project
On day two of the new legal blogging pilot I headed to the East London Family Court to check out how easy it would be to take up the new right to (normally) attend (most) family court hearings (just as an accredited journalist can). And to see what challenges it might...
Inaugural Legal Blogging Day
Yesterday, 1 October, was the first day of the new legal bloggers pilot. Having spent many hours persuading the powers that be that this was a good idea to try out, it seemed like the done thing to be there on Day One. So, shortly before 10am I trotted from Chambers...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
Correcting, clarifying or commenting on media reports of family court cases Explaining or commenting on published judgments of family court cases Highlighting other transparency news MEDIA (MIS)REPORTS OF FAMILY COURT CASES The Daily Mail - Nurse’s one-year-old son is...
Legal Bloggers are go!
The legal blogging pilot starts on Monday. We have been thinking about how it might work and some of the issues that may arise. We have created a dedicated legal bloggers page, which provides information about the scheme and answers some likely queries. If you are a...
Is high quality journalism sustainable? Our evidence to the Cairncross Review
The Cairncross review was set up by the government in March 2018 to investigate "how to sustain the production and distribution of high-quality journalism in a changing market". It is chaired by Dame Frances Cairncross (a former journalist) and is supported by an...
#CPConf2018: Risk of Future Emotional Harm – justified grounds to remove children?
On 15th September a group of parents, lawyers, social workers and academics met at the Conway Hall in London for the third Child Protection Conference, supported by The Transparency Project and sponsored by Bath Publishing. There was an audio recording of the day...
14-year-old instructs his own solicitor in care proceedings
The Times published a story on 13 September under the headline, ‘Judge lets 14-year-old boy choose his own lawyer’. The judgment is on BAILII here - Re Z (A Child: Care Proceedings: Separate Representation) [2018] EWFC B57. We don’t know why the Times has not...
Lord Chief Justice calls for more open justice
Judges should publish more judgments online, and they should engage more with the media, according to the Lord Chief Justice. "We cannot complain that the public does not understand what we do, and its importance, if we do not take steps to lift the veil a little and...
Correcting inaccuracy by the mainstream media in reporting of family court cases
Family Law publishes a regular column by The Transparency Project. This blog post originally appeared in the August 2018 issue, [2018] Fam Law 1062. As we noted in our June column, 'Press reporting on family courts' [2018] Fam Law 750, there seems little prospect...
Freedom versus responsibility when the Press report on care proceedings
On September 6th 2018 The Sun published an article 'They Stole my Baby' - Mum’s heartbreaking tale of how secret courts took her baby away forever – as we reveal children are being ripped from parents in record numbers. What follows is the usual mixture of...