Posts
Could do better – a self-fulfilling prophecy about parental fear
Parents of transgender children fear their ex-partners will sue them for custody of their children after the high court ruled that a seven year old child who identified as transgender should be removed from the care of their mother. Apparently. Except that fear (which...
Family Court Reporting Watch: Weekly Round-Up
Correcting, clarifying and commenting on media reports of family court cases Explaining and commenting on published Judgments of family cases Highlighting other transparency news MEDIA REPORTS OF FAMILY COURTS CASES / FAMILY JUSTICE ISSUES The BBC and...
English councils confirm they set targets for the number of children to be adopted
This collaborative post, based on Alice Twaite's research, is Part Two of our work on adoption targets. [Update : You will now find the press release issued on publication and links those responses to this post which we are aware of at the foot of this post.] Part One...
What About Henry? An interesting discussion about how we deal with domestic abuse
This week The Transparency Project were invited to attend an event at Portcullis House hosted by Only Dads and Only Mums, with Jess Phillips MP. Our Lucy Reed went along... The format was a series of short panel presentations with brief points made after each - the...
The Telegraph and Daily Mail seem to just copy The Sun’s family law reporting mistakes
“LEGAL AID FURY Woman fed boy, 3, poison while plotting to take him to see ISIS jihadi father in Syria but was given public cash in battle to keep any alleged terror connections secret: Taxpayer-funded legal aid went on lawyers representing her as she tried to stop...
A tottering edifice indeed…
Christopher Booker, writing in the Sunday Telegraph last week, is critical of former District Judge Crichton (a retired family court Judge), for giving a selective account of the work of family courts. You can read the article here (you may have to pay) : "Removing...
Enemies of Transparency: Newspaper Stories & The Court of Protection
This is a guest post written by Barbara Rich. Barbara is a barrister and mediator specialising in inheritance and trusts and Court of Protection property and affairs cases. She tweets as @BarbaraRich_law. The Daily Mail’s 4 November 2016 front page describing the...
Is it appropriate to admit covert recordings of professionals or others within family proceedings?
Earlier in 2016, The Transparency Project, along with the Association of Lawyers for Children and others, were invited by His Honour Judge Bellamy (Designated Family Judge for Leicester) to make written submissions to the Family Court regarding the question of covert...
Access to information should not be an after-thought in plans for ‘transforming our justice system’
On 15th September 2016 the Ministry of Justice opened its consultation into "Transforming Our Justice System". The 36 page document, accompanied by a statement by the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals, sets out a "vision"...
A “Gay parents row” – OR who can adopt and when?
There has been coverage in The Times and The Telegraph this week about a husband and wife who wish to adopt their foster children but have been told they can't, because of their views about gay adoption. We thought it would be useful to give a brief explanation...