Posts
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...
Talking in code
Some good news. Two bits actually. Firstly, the President has recently announced that the Reporting Pilot will be extended to cover Magistrates from October. Better late than never - the pilot will be ten months into its year long run by that time, so unless the pilot...
What’s a QLR and what’s all the fuss about?
QLR stands for 'Qualified Legal Representative', which sounds quite simple. However, in light of a recent article about the topic of QLRs, we thought it would be helpful to give some basic explanations of some of the terminology and the scheme. The article by Haroon...
‘Family Court retraumatises domestic abuse victims’
This is the conclusion of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales who has published a report about family courts which, unsurprisingly, criticises the lack of government action on the commitments it made in 2020, following the ‘Harm Report’. The...
News from the latest open Family Justice Council meeting – Guidance imminent!
It seems there’s nothing quite like a Family Justice Council (open) annual meeting to get long awaited guidance over the line. Here's where we'd got to this time last year. Keehan J chaired this year's open meeting at pace and had pretty much pinned down...
GROUNDHOG DAY
A response to the Report of the Financial Remedies Sub-Group of The Transparency Implementation Group This is a guest post by Sir James Munby in response to the report of the Financial Remedies Sub-Group of the Transparency Implementation Group, which can be read...
‘Is it based on a true story?’ – A review of new BBC TV drama, “Best Interests”
This is a guest post by Ian Brownhill. Ian is a barrister at 39 Essex Chambers who specialises in public, humanrights and regulatory law. Much of his work revolves around medical decision making for adults who lack capacity to make treatment decisions and for...