Posts
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...
New Order Precedents Summarise Privacy Restrictions for Readers
Most Family Court orders have some sort of confidentiality warning on them these days., especially in cases about children Typically they warn that the names of the children and family members must not be published. The template orders and precedent libraries that...
No anonymity for contempt against family court
The decision in EBK v DLO [2023] EWHC 1074 (Fam) was reported in the local press as ‘Royal marine fails in contempt proceedings against ex-partner’. The case involved a lengthy history of disputes over contact, allegations of domestic abuse, employment sanctions, and...
Media & bloggers observing hearings
It is now 14 years since the Family Procedure Rules were amended to allow 'accredited media representatives' i.e. journalists to attend most types of family court hearings, and more than four years since 'duly authorised lawyers' i.e. legal bloggers were also allowed...
Transparency – cases about finance on divorce
The Financial Remedies Court sub-group of the Transparency Implementation Group (TIG ) has published a 164 page report. This refers to cases about financial remedies on divorce i.e resolving issues between divorcing couples about their income and assets – they are not...