Posts
Pilot’s Progress
Some news. The Reporting Pilot now running in 3 courts will shortly be extended to Magistrates in those courts. The Reporting Pilot will be rolled out in a number of other courts from January 2024. As with the first 3 pilot courts the new courts will first bring...
National Psychology Service – Still in the dark
UPDATE 25.11.23: We have now received replies to our follow-up questions and will publish these, and our views on them, next week. In April we wrote a blog post: The ‘Psychology Service’ for family court cases that nobody seems to know about:...
Open Justice Today – speech by the Lord Chief Justice
In one of his last speeches before retiring as the head of the judiciary of England & Wales, Lord Burnett of Maldon congratulated the courts on the way technology had enhanced open justice through live streaming, media access to remote hearings, and the...
Not enough legal blogging under the reporting pilots? We explore why that might be…
We've heard rumbles a couple of times in recent months, along the lines of 'not enough legal blogging' under the new reporting pilots in Cardiff, Carlisle and Leeds family court centres. They've got us thinking about how many legal blogging hours we are putting in...
Open Justice: the way forward
In May this year, the Ministry of Justice issued a call for evidence from all interested parties, including the judiciary, legal professionals, the media, businesses, academics, law and technology experts and court and tribunal users on how they think the government...
The Transparency Review, reviewed
As the two year anniversary of the publication of the Transparency Review approaches, how does Sir Andrew McFarlane’s acknowledgment of the need for a major shift in culture and process to increase the transparency of the family justice system, and his promises of a...
When should care orders be made for children living at home? New Court of Appeal guidance
The President of the Family Division has issued guidance on when a care order is the right order for the court to make although the children are to live at home with their parents. In other words, there is no imminent plan to remove the children under a care...
Holding a fact finding hearing in the absence of the perpetrator
I recently attended a hearing at Cardiff Family Court as a legal blogger under the Reporting Pilot, in the hope of finding out more about QLRs (under the ‘qualified legal representative’ scheme), as we discussed in this post: What’s a QLR and what’s all the fuss...
Contempt of court – yet more confusion and inconsistency over naming of guilty party
Yet again a judgment in a contempt of court case has revealed problems around transparency and open justice. The case is Esper v NHS North West London Integrated Care Board [2023] EWCOP 29; [2023] WLR(D) 300, and is a decision of Mr Justice Poole. This case has also...
Should a 14-year-old instruct his own solicitor? – new Court of Appeal judgment
This lengthy judgment (82 paragraphs) from Peter Jackson LJ should prove invaluable as a summary of the law and guidance on children’s competence to instruct their own lawyers. It is also useful in considering communication directly between children and judges. The...