Posts
Reporting Pilot extended to private law hearings (and other TIG news)
From 15 May, journalist and legal bloggers will be allowed to report on private law hearings in the three Reporting Pilot Courts, Cardiff, Carlisle and Leeds. The Reporting Pilot that began on 30 January in public law is to be extended, so that a reporter...
The ‘Psychology Service’ for family court cases that nobody seems to know about
In March we saw a tweet from someone who had quoted a short extract from this study, which referenced a ‘psychology service’ used by Cafcass in England, and gave some statistics associated with it: namely that : ‘alienation/alienating behaviours was the most selected...
Balancing professionals’ Article 8 claims with parents’ Article 10 claims
With the progress gradually being made toward more openness in family court proceedings, there's increasing discussion about who should and who should not be named and identified in judgments and reports. Although there is consensus (and law) that children should...
Anonymisation of a young adult applicant for judicial review about section 20
There are two matters of interest in this unusual judgment by Mr Justice Mostyn in respect of a claim for judicial review brought by a teenager against a local authority, originally published on The National Archives as TT v Essex County Council [2023] EWHC 721 (Fam)...
Why we hardly ever see published family court judgments
Amidst the attention being paid to the courts in the Reporting Pilot, especially the series of broadcasts on the BBC Today programme by Sanchia Berg recently, other outputs from the President's Transparency Implementation Group (TIG) have been slowly emerging. One of...
Closed hearings in the Court of Protection: under-scrutiny?
The Court of Protection will, on rare occasions, not only hear a case in private but do so without telling one of the parties or their representatives, even after it's happened. This is known as a ‘closed’ hearing. The court has power to do so under the Court of...
Cardiff Family Drug & Alcohol Court – a snapshot
On 2 February 2023, I attended the Family Court in Cardiff, aiming to report on cases under the newly launched Reporting Pilot. I identified one case on the court list which I was able both to attend and report. It turned out to be a hearing in the FDAC – the Family...
The Transparency Reporting Pilot: FAQs for legal bloggers
On 2nd February 2023, we ran training for prospective legal bloggers interested in taking part in the Transparency Reporting Pilot. During that training, we received some thoughtful questions which we thought helpful to condense into one blog post, as well as some...
Re Z: A family court decision to share serious abuse findings with Social Work England (with guidance)
Last month, there was a fair bit of media interest around a High Court battle before Mrs Justice Knowles involving a senior social worker who had been found by the family court to have perpetrated domestic abuse towards his ex-partner. HHJ Ahmed, the judge...
‘Somewhere in the history of this case we have lost our humanity’
This is an update on a case I wrote about in September last year - 'Choosing the course which is less stressful to the child'. The hearing before Mrs Justive Lieven last summer concerned applications for care orders by Warwickshire County Council in respect of X and Z...