We first published our Guidance Note ‘What to do when a reporter attends (or wants to attend) your hearing‘ in 2023. Later, we updated it to account for the expansion of the Reporting Pilot and introduction of the Financial Remedies Pilot, developing two versions, one for use in pilot courts and one for use in non-pilot courts.
Now that Practice Direction 12 R (the Open Reporting Provisions) is operating in all courts – and as of today at all tiers of judiciary), we have updated this guidance, and reverted to a single guide for use in all Family Courts in England and Wales.
As ever, it isn’t legal advice. Instead, we provide practical tips, summaries of some key law and rules, and signpost you to key materials.
We hope the revised guidance is useful for judges and lawyers alike. Please pass it on to any colleague who might find it helpful. Although this particular guidance note isn’t aimed at parents or other litigants (for whom there is already a useful guidance leaflet about the Open Reporting Provisions (see first link on this page), it might be useful to them too. Please send any feedback or suggestions for improvements to us at info@transparencyproject.org.uk.
For anyone who wants to understand more about legal blogging, and in particular our approach to it, you will find that information on our dedicated Legal Blogging page, under the FAQs.
You can download a copy of the September 2025 version of the guidance here.
The Transparency Project is an independent charity, and the guidance we produce is not official guidance. It is based on our-hands on experience in this field as lawyers and legal bloggers and through working alongside journalists. Earlier versions of this guidance have been endorsed by the judiciary, e.g. an earlier version of the guidance was appended to the FR Reporting Pilot guidance issued by the President.
We have a small favour to ask!
The Transparency Project is a registered charity in England & Wales run largely by volunteers who also have full-time jobs. We’re working hard to secure extra funding so that we can keep making family justice clearer for all who use the court and work within it.
Our legal bloggers take time out at their own expense to attend courts and to write up hearings.
We’d be really grateful if you were able to help us by making a small one-off (or regular!) donation through our Just Giving page.
Thanks for reading!