Posts
New born babies and care proceedings
‘More than half of urgent care hearings in England in 2024-25 were for newborns, where mothers had to attend court within days of giving birth or even potentially on the same day.’ – - according to a BBC report in October. The report mentioned that new guidance was...
How far can CoPilot be used in writing social work assessments for court?
There’s a lot being said and written about the use of AI in courts and how helpful (or not) AI can be. We recently highlighted research by JUSTICE on the use by local authority social workers of an AI tool to record and transcribe their own notes of meetings etc....
Committal for contempt as post-separation litigation abuse
This recently published High Court judgment from Mrs Justice Lieven, K v J & Anor [2026] EWHC 1792 (Fam) appears to have a typo in the headnote which says ‘Between K and J and L (Permission for Consent Proceedings)’. What K was applying for was permission to apply...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: October 2026
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. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc GB News (among others)...
Repeal of the presumption of parental involvement
We have been posting about this topic for some years now - most recently in February this year. Last week, there was another blaze of publicity about the repeal by Parliament of the legislation introduced in 2014 that added a presumption to the Children Act 1989 where...
Lowering the temperature: a shared care order
This is a joint post by Paul Magrath and Harriet Humberstone, who last month attended a final hearing before Recorder McAllister in a case listed for three days at the Central Family Court in London. Paul and Harriet are both ‘duly authorised lawyers’ aka legal...
Reporting Transparency in our Family Courts: Has it made a difference?
Last week the law firm Simons Muirhead & Burton (SMB) hosted a panel discussion at their London office on Reporting Transparency in our Family Courts: Has it made a difference? The panel was chaired by Tessa Bray, a partner at SMB, who explained that in...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup: Aug-Sep 2026
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. MEDIA COVERAGE OF FAMILY LAW, TRANSPARENCY etc The Times (£) had a...
Is the Child Focused Court model allowing time to really focus on children’s welfare?
An important new judgment from the Court of Appeal was published on the judiciary website this week – Re C (Child Arrangements Orders; Domestic Abuse; Child Focused Court) [2026] EWCA Civ 1216 This was a case about contact between four children and their...
A family damaged by court proceedings?
A 12 year old boy (who I’ll call ‘Jon’ – not his real name) had been subject to private law proceedings for more than three years. In a final hearing before HHJ Gibbons at Oxford Family Court this summer, the Cafcass guardian said that Jon had been failed by the...