MAKING FAMILY JUSTICE CLEARER
LEGAL BLOGGING & OPEN REPORTING
Latest posts
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: November 2025
Welcome to the Roundup, where we correct, clarify and comment on media reports of family law, explain and comment on published family court judgments, and highlight other transparency news.
New statistics on Pathfinder courts show dramatic drop in length of proceedings
We've not seen this publicised yet, which is a little surprising as the Ministry of Justice is very keen on the Pathfinder approach in private law. We mentioned in our recent post on the HC Justice Committee session that judges, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and...
A child’s voice in care proceedings
A recent care case heard in Cardiff Family Court highlighted the experiences of children living in fear of their parents’ unpredictable and violent behaviour. The judge said that despite her having 30 years experience in care work, the children’s descriptions (in...
An end to secrecy in family courts? Proposed reforms of contempt of court law that could lift the threats to sharing information
It’s common knowledge that people involved in family court proceedings held in private are very restricted in what they can say about what’s happening. There are well-established and accepted restrictions on naming children (under section 97 Children Act 1989). The...
‘Reform of the Family Court’ – evidence session for the House of Commons Justice Committee
The House of Commons Parliamentary Justice Committee held a session on 28 October to look at ‘Reform of the Family Court’. We’re not sure what was meant by ‘reform’ – this was never specified - but the session had four important witnesses giving evidence: Lisa Harker...
Sara Sharif -what we now know from the Safeguarding Review
Chris Barnes represented the journalists, Louise Tickle and Hannah Summers, in proceedings before the High Court and Court of Appeal arising from applications for the disclosure of papers from the family proceedings concerning Sara and her family. On 13 November 2025,...
Get our posts in your inbox
If you would like to be automatically notified of new posts on this site through our weekly email, and sent information from time to time about the work of The Transparency Project or our events, please join our mailing list.
The Group
The people behind this site.
We’re transparent, you know!