by Julie Doughty | Aug 12, 2026 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging
In Part One of this report, I described the court hearings in Cardiff Family Court that led to HHJ Paul Hopkins KC producing a 188 page fact-finding judgment of more than 700 paragraphs. The judge concluded that most of the allegations that the father, (who I’m...
by Julie Doughty | Aug 4, 2026 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging
During the Covid lockdown in 2020, a father of three young children experienced a mental health breakdown that led to the police being called and his being sectioned under the Mental Health Act 1983 and hospitalised for two weeks. He’d separated from his wife a few...
by Julie Doughty | Jul 30, 2026 | Comment, FCReportingWatch
A new report on research undertaken by Jaime Lindsey (Associate Professor in Medical Law, Oriel College, Oxford) and Joanna Harwood (Lecturer, Essex University Law School) makes a number of recommendations regarding private family law proceedings in England and Wales...
by Julie Doughty | Jun 24, 2026 | Cases, Explanation, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging
Last month I attended an online hearing in Slough Family Court where the issue for the judge was whether the English court still had jurisdiction regarding a mother’s application, or whether family court proceedings should instead take place in Poland, where her son...
by Julie Doughty | May 13, 2026 | Cases, FCReportingWatch, Legal blogging
This is my first case of legal blogging where I’ve heard anything about the child’s views being sought on my attendance and reporting of the proceedings. Last month, I went to a hearing in care proceedings at Gloucester Family Court (which takes the prize for having...
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