Posts
Re W (Adoption: Contact) and the importance of basic steps to trace wider family in the early stages, for a childs chances of growing up within her birth family
Re W (Adoption: Contact) [2016] EWHC 3118 (Fam) is a family court decision by Cobb J in the High Court. The judgment explaining this decision has just been published. The case This was the re hearing of a decision about whether a (by then) 2 and a half year old girl...
Why the Court of Appeal released a grandmother imprisoned for disobeying orders of the Court of Protection
Some time ago we wrote about the case of Mrs Kirk, a woman imprisoned for breaking orders made in the Court of Protection. She had taken an elderly and incapacitated man "M" to a care home in Portugal and refused to bring him back when ordered (or more specifically...
Court of Protection – Paul Briggs case on withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment
This week the Court of Protection, sitting in Manchester, has been hearing a case about a policeman, Paul Briggs, whose wife, Lindsey Briggs has applied to the court for withdrawal of life-prolonging treatment (the feeding tube) that she no longer believes is in her...
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 court cases; Highlighting other transparency news MEDIA REPORTS OF FAMILY COURTS CASES / FAMILY JUSTICE ISSUES The Guardian...
Adoption: “Nothing else will do” and the impact of decisions much earlier in the child protection process about mental health assessments and provision of therapy
Gloucestershire County Council v M & Ors is a recently published case where a family court judge at circuit judge level applied routine, established law to the particular circumstances of a 9 month old baby boy and his vulnerable young mother. Through no fault of...
England’s Stolen Children? Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose
On November 15th 2016 a documentary aired on French television called 'England's Stolen Children'. 'Researching Reform' provided comment and a useful translation of the explanation of the programme's contents. If your French is good enough, you can watch the...
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 Other transparency news MEDIA REPORTS OF FAMILY COURTS CASES / FAMILY JUSTICE ISSUES The Daily Telegraph...
Adoption targets : When we said it was complicated, we were oversimplifying – it’s REALLY complicated…
We published the results of a study on Adoption Targets on 17 November. A day later, the Association of Directors of Childrens' Services (ADCS) responded with a press release (although we didn't spot it at the time - it's a shame that although we had called for...
Is the Court of Protection really facing “rocketing” financial abuse by attorneys and deputies?
A recent article in the Daily Telegraph claimed that “Record numbers of people trusted to look after the finances of those lacking the mental capacity to do so are being struck off by the authorities.” The article’s headline was even more stark: “Financial abuse...
Some immediate reactions to CAFCASS’ open letter
When we received an emailed open letter from CAFCASS setting out their position in response to our recent blog post : What About Henry? An interesting discussion about how we deal with domestic abuse a number of us shared our immediate reactions to CAFCASS' letter...