Posts
Podcastarama
Sarah Phillimore and Lucy Reed have created a podcast in which they use the recent "Protection" episode of Silent Witness as a discussion point, to engage with issues around child protection and family justice. This is a first podcast for the Transparency Project and...
The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers
'If I wait for evidence it can be too late' - when dramatic licence goes too far I watched the first half of Silent Witness: Protection on Wednesday via iplayer and smiled indulgently at some of the more anguished twitter responses to its portrayal of child...
The curious case of the judge with no name
There is an assumption in some parts of the media that the Family Courts are deliberately operating in a secretive manner in order to cover up the sinister conduct of social workers, doctors, and local authorities, and that is why hearings are held in private (ie in...
Wood for Trees
Transparency is about understanding not information. Quality not quantity. Substance not form. So more judgments ≠ more transparency. And more open courts ≠ more transparency. And more and more and more and more and more information on a single website ≠ more...
Naming social workers in family court cases
Community Care has published this story about social workers’ fears of being named in the media. This reminds us that it’s not just children who worry about this prospect, but also professionals. The article is sponsored by Unison, the trade union, on behalf of their...
The transparency debate rolls on
Peggy Ray (Goodman Ray Solicitors) opens December’s edition of ‘Family Law’ with ‘comment’ that adds to the wider discussion about transparency. (Family Law is subscription only content I’m afraid for those following the debate who don’t have access to it. I always...
How transparent can we be?
As its very new, we're still feeling our way through how we will run this project - and we have recently had to deal with the thorny issue of what the limits are on comments about individual cases. We have an "Editorial Policy" here, which sets out that we will and...
Other news on media and children’s privacy
More news on campaigning for children's privacy, as the Weller case goes to the Supreme Court. Hannah Weller has started a campaign to stop the media publishing photographs of children without parents' consent. I thought JK Rowling had already established this....
Is there a “wall of opposition” to greater transparency in family courts?
On 1 January The Times published a piece under the headline “Judge attacked over bid to hold family cases in public” (£). Frances Gibb, legal editor, reported that Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, “could be forced to delay or radically rethink moves...
Summary of Resolution response
Overall, the response is negative about any further publicity measures being introduced. Sources used are the experiences and views of Resolution members and the recent Brophy et al report. Resolution makes strong arguments for research and evaluations to be...