Posts
Poppi Worthington – legal aid
There have been a number of news reports today concerning the grant of legal aid to the father of Poppi Worthington, who was named by a judge as having sexually assaulted his daughter before she died. They are in very similar terms in (for example) The Times and The...
Court of Protection pilot scheme: an experiment in greater transparency
This post follows my experience attending a Court of Protection hearing for the first time, under its new transparency pilot. The last few years have seen a gradual process of opening up the Family Courts to greater public scrutiny, partly to comply better with the...
Guidance on use of voluntary accommodation (“section 20”) published
UPDATE FEB 2017 : In light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Hackney v Williams (see here) we will be looking at our guidance note to see if it needs amendment or updating. Following on from the guidance about recording that we published in December 2015,...
Guidance on use of section 20 accommodation
This guidance note was updated in April 2017. Download section 20 guidance
Choosing our words carefully
Louise Tickle's article about "Annie" (or Surviving Safeguarding as she is known on her blog) was published this weekend : ‘I saw his fluffy little head going out the door’: one woman's fight to keep her baby - Annie’s son was removed from her just days after he was...
New research on transparency in family justice
Members of the Transparency Project have noticed that the rate at which family court judgments are sent to BAILII, and the way in which they are reported, has been inconsistent over the past two years, despite the guidance issued by the court's President in January...
‘Baby-snatchers’ and post-natal depression – update
As Paul Magrath noted lasted week, The Spectator published this article by Lara Prendergast on 6 February : Beware the baby-snatchers. He explained the misrepresentation of family court reporting in this story. Another unsubstantiated claim made by Lara Prendergast...
Secrets and lies – the lazy cliches that stand in the way of proper court reporting
When, recently, a popular radio and TV presenter died, several tabloid newspapers splashed their front pages with the news that Terry Wogan had lost his "secret battle with cancer". The implication was that he, together with his medical team and close family, had...
Press Reporting of Care Proceedings
Transparency Project members Lucy Reed and Louise Tickle wrote an article on this topic for Family Law Journal in January. Jordans have kindly given permission for that article to be republished here. If you would like to read the article please click here to download...
Talking to the Judge without your client in court is potentially unlawful
This post arises out of a recent comment by a parent on the Child Protection Resource site. I sat in a court waiting room in the not too distant past, when I noticed a lawyer go up to the client and say the judge wants to see us in chambers. So the client sat there...