Blog
Can you trust the information in popular petitions?
They may look persuasive, and present the arguments for their proposed action in a punchy and compelling manner, even backed up by research or statistics. But who is fact checking these petitions? Do you check the claims before you sign? Alarmingly, as a result of a...
More Family Court judgments to be published online
New guidance (you can find it here – scroll down to the ninth item on the list) has been issued to family courts by the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew McFarlane, on how judgments by judges and magistrates should be safely anonymised and published on The...
Legal blogging from the magistrates – ‘live with’ and ‘spend time with’ orders
I’m taking up this report from Lucy’s of 5 May. This is our first successful legal blogging from a hearing before magistrates in the family court – which the mainstream media appear to be ignoring. Magistrates hear the less complicated cases which are unlikely to...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
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 MATTERS The Independent (2 June 2024)...
Controversial Suspected Inflicted Head Injuries pilot launched: Lawyers raise concern about lack of consultation and potential unfairness
When a child suffers a head injury which medical professionals suspect may be inflicted, safeguarding processes are triggered, often leading to care proceedings and the removal of the child from the care of their parents, usuall y for many months and sometimes...
The tricky task of making a Child Arrangements Order: directive or undefined? (and how to seek clarification from the judge?)
This is a post by Rebecca Wright. Rebecca is a barrister at Garden Court North. Be warned: Mr Justice Poole has made clear that an undefined provision in a child arrangements order, directing the parents to sort out holiday contact between them, can be successfully...
A complex step-parent adoption hearing
As we wrote about here, the Government announced in April: ‘Child rapists to automatically have parental responsibility stripped: Vile abusers who rape a child will have their own parental responsibilities automatically removed under new laws.' However, this reform...
Family Court Reporting Watch Roundup
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 MATTERS The Standard (12 May 2024)...
Written Advocacy – who is it for?
This post is a guest post by Anna Yarde. Anna is a children barrister at Harcourt Chambers. This commentary is intended for lawyers to read and for lay parties to benefit from. A Guide for Lawyers – Improving Transparency in the Family Court Written Advocacy - and who...
Are cases getting ‘smaller’? – an update
In March, we wrote about some recent cases in which Mrs Justice Lieven in the High Court had talked about the need to ‘make cases smaller’ since the relaunch of the PLO (Public Law Outline) in January 2023. One of these judgments, West Northamptonshire Council (acting...